Kawarimi No Naruto
by Tongues
Summary: Naruto, struck by a near-fatal electric shuriken has his chakra coils scrambled and can only release enough to perform E and D rank techniques. Watch as tries to reach the 1000 jutsu requirement, to accomplish his dream: become the Hokage. NaruTen
1. Limitations

Kawarimi no Naruto

Hey all. I know you probably hate me for abandoning two fics in a row, but to be honest, they were lead ups to this I guess. I took ideas I really wanted and, eventually, they boiled down to this. I am sick and tired of super Naruto fics where he gets his strength from some bloodline or the Kyuubi or where he magically gets a summoning contract just because he is him. Honestly, after to read enough of them, they all start to run together. That is why I am writing this fic. Naruto will develop strength over time, and things will actually play out somewhat realistic to Naruto's persona, if toned down a bit. So, here begins what I believe is the first fic of its kind, prepare yourselves, read, and review.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its content.

Chapter 1: Limitations.

"Do you know why the people of Konoha hate you? Why they despise you?"

"w-why? Why? **WHY?**"

"Because he sealed it inside you. That's right, he sealed it within you, and you have become its incarnate. YOU ARE THE KYUUBI NO KITSUNE NO YOUKAI!" He shouted with glee, spinning the giant shuriken in his hand before hurling it at the boy before him.

Frozen in terror, he didn't move a muscle, until a black mass appeared before him. Suddenly, the panting form of his teacher was over him, blood seeping out of the corners of his mouth and onto the blond boy's face.

"Why?" The blond boy whispered. "Why would you save… a demon like me?"

"Because you aren't a demon. You are much like me, when I was younger.. I played pranks all the time, always trying to get people to notice me. I know how it feels, Naruto, to be all alone. You are not the demon, you are just you… Uzumaki Naruto."

The silver haired figure up in the trees began laughing, before preparing his second shuriken. "He doesn't really care for you, and you want to know why? Because you killed his parents, **Demon**."

And suddenly… Iruka wasn't there anymore. A lightning charged shuriken took his place, the upper half of Iruka on Naruto's left, his lower half on the right, blood splattering Naruto leaving barely any orange visible beneath it. All he heard was the man's whispers, right before it hit.

"Live, protect, love, Naruto."

And with that, the giant electrically charged shuriken embedded itself within Naruto's gut, as his slowly closing eyes watched the silver haired man escape with the scroll.

(Mindscape)

"**Bloody kid really fucked up this time**" a muttering came from down the hallway of the strange sewer.

Naruto looked around, his clothing now somehow clean, a red glow emanating from the end of the hallway he was in, lighting up the water around his feet, the foul smell of sewage and the pipes above his head giving a dreary feel to Naruto's already down-trodden state of mind.

Trudging down the hallway towards the glow, he figured he'd have to face his demons someday. Oh how right he was, and how much he wished he was wrong.

Arriving in the darkness, the child watched apathetically as lights lit up the large cage before him, and a claw shot out from between the bars, going straight through his body without ever touching it at all. Naruto felt no fear, because it would be meaningless, he felt no hatred because there was nothing worth being angry for, no anxiety or excitement because nothing could bring his 'older brother' back.

"**How nice to finally meet my host, one with a spine for once**". It was a little known fact that the Kyuubi had had multiple vessels in his lifetime, including at one point a Hyuuga whom he mutated over time to create the sharingan, and a young Kaguya who he'd given the ability to morph his body despite his bone structure.

Naruto remained silent, he knew who the Thing behind the bars had to be. The Kyuubi. As if confirming this train of thought, two red eyes peered out of the darkness, watching him.

"**What have you come here for? Knowledge? Death? Or are you here simply to annoy me, food?**"

Naruto moved forward, up to the gate. "I have come here for nothing, but an explanation… Why am I here?"

"**Because you nearly died. Because a giant shuriken lodged itself into your body and electrocuted you. Did you not notice? I am merely here to keep you alive, vessel. As soon as I can figure out a way out of here, your life is forfeit, but until then I suggest you live. Oh, and by the way, I figured you should know something.**"

A questioning glance from the boy told the ancient fox that the boy hadn't yet noticed, much to the nine-tailed fox's amusement.

"**You can barely use chakra. You have a gigantic amount of it, but due to recent damage to your inner coils, what with a giant electrically charged shuriken in your gut, you can barely use enough for the E rank techniques you already know, and that clone technique you learned since it actually splits your chakra instead of using it. Anyway, good luck!**"

And with that reassuring comment, Naruto was kicked out of his own mind, a rather odd experience as it meant temporally having no thoughts whilst he actually woke up.

(Hospital)

Naruto was now lying face-up in a hospital bed, an awful headache plaguing his mind while he looked around, taking in his room. It was white, of course, and due to the extra healing Kyuubi gave him, and the fact that none of the hospital personnel actually wanted him to live, he was hooked up to no machines. Heck, he didn't even have an IV. There was a bookcase for him, but as usual, there were no books on it. Taking some time to himself, Naruto thought about Iruka's death.

Of course, this hit Naruto deeply on an emotional level. Sure, he had been a harsh teacher, but even while knowing he had a demon in him, Iruka had sworn to Naruto's face that he didn't believe he was a demon. Naruto knew life was hard, that people died, and that one day, he too would die. It was just shocking to gain someone important, then lose them so quickly afterwards. Thinking back on the few times the man had either treated him to ramen, or talked with him after class genuinely concerned with his progress, Naruto vowed that he would take Iruka's encouragement to heart. He would become Hokage like he'd always said, even with these new limits, and he would 'Live, protect, and love.'

'_But that's my problem. Being Hokage requires having 1000 techniques. Sure, there are some non-combat E-rank techniques, but not all that many. And I only know one move that splits chakra rather than channels it, and that is Kage Bunshin. No, I really needed to come up with combinations… 1000 combinations using only Kage Bunshin, Kawarimi, and henge, and maybe a few other E-ranks. I can pull this off… I have years. Can't be that hard to figure out how to split chakra._'

Just as he finished this line of thought, in walked the Hokage, once again angry that the hospital had claimed that the 'Demon-child' hadn't needed medical assistance and left him unattended, not that Naruto minded.

"Ojji-san!" Naruto exclaimed.

The Old Hokage was happy to see Naruto, ripped orange jacket and pants, black shirt, spiky blond hair, blue eyes, and all that made the child up. "Hello Naruto-kun."

"About.. ano, Iruka-niisan?"

"He.. He was burned earlier today, his name added to the monument."

"Oh… Well, it's okay, I, I have taken his last words to heart… I'll be okay Ojji-san, as long as I become a great ninja like he'd wanted me to.. but I seem to have hit a little snag there."

"Eh?" The Hokage was broken from his reverie, surprised at Naruto's seeming acceptance of death. '_Maybe the fox had something to do with it?_'

"I can't use chakra for anything more than E-rank techniques and Kage-Bunshin, or so the… fox told me."

"You know about your tenant?" The Hokage asked, shocked.

"Yes, but I'm not angry. I can see why you wouldn't want me to know. But Iruka-niisan" The Hokage and Naruto both cringed at the suffix as the boy clearly hadn't gotten over him, the tear on his cheek as evidence "Said that I wasn't the fox, just its container… I wouldn't have wanted to know that so long ago."

"Er, Naruto, we are going to need to have a long talk about all of this."

(Hours Later)

Naruto sat in his apartment, slurping down ramen. He had gotten home only minutes earlier, the Hokage having given him a Konoha Hitai-ate to signify his passing, due to having mastered the Kage Bunshin technique. They had a long talk about death, the Kyuubi, and how Naruto hadn't given up his dream. The Hokage was actually quite surprised when Naruto asked for a book on "That mathy stuff with gravity" which the Hokage figured to be civilian schooling, like geometry, trigonometry, chemistry, and physics. The Hokage had given Naruto a pass to the library with his seal on it, and told Naruto that he could go there any time he wished.

The Hokage also clued Naruto in on a bit of his current condition the boy hadn't thought about. With such a low maximum of chakra the boy could use, his control would be better than anybody else's for low rank techniques. And because of his high chakra capacity, the number of times Naruto could use an E-rank technique was basically limitless… All Naruto needed to start on his 996 techniques (Since he could now use Kawarimi, Henge, normal Bunshin, and Kage Bunshin) was to get the speed and skill of the techniques up to the point where he could do them without handseals.

Naruto, after checking out a few books, he headed back to his apartment. Now done with his ramen, he slipped off to sleep. Tomorrow he would start on technique number 5 of 1000.

(Next Day)

Naruto walked into the classroom, only 8 other notable students there, all chatting. Ino and Sakura were arguing over who got to sit next to Sasuke, since he had chosen to sit next to an aisle, so he would only have to deal with one banshee.

Shino was up in the top right corner of the classroom, talking to a moth he'd found on the windowsill. Chouji was eating, Shikamaru was sleeping, Kiba and his dog were chasing their tails, though Kiba caught his and was rubbing it under the table. Hinata blushed with her Byakugan on whilst watching Kiba touch his 'tail' and Naruto was now at the front of the room, reading a book with the words 'Geometry Level 1' printed on the front cover, meant for civilian schooling.

Sasuke, finding it within his brooding power to speak, spoke over the two banshees who stopped dreamily at the sound of his voice. "Dobe, why're you here, you didn't graduate."

Naruto simply sighed, then pointed at his Hitai-ate… the one the Hokage gave him from off of Iruka's body. The cloth was still stained with his teacher's blood. "What does this look like?"

Akamaru suddenly started whining and yipping, and suddenly Kiba pointed an accusing finger at Naruto… an accusing finger with white stuff on it… white sticky stuff. "Why does your Hitai-ate smell like Iruka-sensei?"

Naruto snorted in amusement. "First off, how do you know what Iruka-sensei smells like?" The class was taken aback as they realized he had known, then snickered… while Hinata sighed and muttered, much to Kiba's unsaid chagrin "Why do all the wild ones have to be gay?… At least there's still Naruto-kun…"

Naruto continued "And it smells like him because it is his. He gave it to me when he-"

Naruto was cut off by the Hokage entering the room with w list in hand. "When he had an accident during Naruto's retest last night. He'd forgotten one for Naruto, so he gave him his own." The Hokage said.

"Now, I will announce your teams. Now, since they are main characters, I will announce theirs first, as no one cares about the rest of you. I mean uh…. We are saving the best for last, now: Team 7 will be Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura" There was a pause as Sakura squealed in delight. "And Yamanaka Ino. Your sensei is Hatake Kakashi."

There was another pause as suddenly a cat-fight broke out, Ino starting out by ripping off Sakura's shirt… to reveal an almost completely flat chest. In that instant, Naruto's crush on her was gone…

The Hokage shrugged his shoulders and continued the announcements. "Team 8 is Sai, Hyuuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba. Your sensei is Yuuhi Kurenai."

There was a mutter of "Darn… two gay guys" from Hinata, which was heard because of the silence in the room due to Sakura ripping off Ino's shirt in the continuing cat-fight, to reveal b-cup breasts. Snickering and wide-eyes followed accordingly, while the Inuzuka began playing with his 'tail' again.

"Team 10 is Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji, and Aburame Shino. Your sensei is Sarutobi Asuma."

The Hokage finished reading off the names, and only Team 7 and Naruto remained in the room, Sakura and Ino having finished their spat and repaired their clothing, though the Uchiha was actually now somewhat interested in Ino. She would make strong children.

Naruto looked up at the Hokage and asked "Why do I have no team?"

A whisper of "Dobe" came from the Uchiha, but Naruto ignored it. "Because I have placed you on team Gai. One of their members graduated to chuunin in the last exam and they need another member. Meet at training ground 8 tomorrow at 6 AM. Your members are Rock Lee and Tenten, your sensei is Maito Gai."

With a nod, Naruto left to get more books from the library before heading home.

(Naruto's Apartment)

Naruto was in his apartment, in his bedroom reading, whilst a Kage Bunshin was making ramen for him. Suddenly, Naruto felt a shadow of pain in the left side of his body, simultaneously hearing a poof of smoke from the other room. Peeking into the other room, he noticed a spilled pot of boiling water and the remains of a clone, the smoke fading away.

An idea sparking in his head, Naruto formed another clone, telling it to go read a book, after reading the first chapter and gaining an understanding of it, to dispel itself. Naruto, the original, headed into the other room, making a few cups of ramen. Just as he finished eating his lunch, he heard the poof and a rush of knowledge entered his mind, causing a minor headache. However, **he learned what the clone learned**.

Creating numerous clones, he started them on the books he'd gotten, having four clones help him. By the end of the day, he had a basic understanding of angles and degrees, and the three planes 'X, Y, and Z'. And what was more, he figured out that dispelling them one by one helped reduce the effects of the transfer.

Heading to bed with a grin on his face, he set his alarm for 5:30 AM and settled into his covers. Oh yes, this would be fun.

(Next Day)

Naruto arrived at the training ground to find two…things. They had green spandex suits, gigantic eyebrows, bowl-cuts, and were hugging with a sunset genjutsu behind them which Naruto didn't even try to dispel. Though, he figured even if he was the greatest genjutsu master the world has ever seen, he probably wouldn't have been able to dispel it. In fact, their only redeeming feature he could see so far was their orange legwarmers. Yes, he wanted a pair for himself damn it.

Off to the side was a girl in a pink chinese-style top and black pants that were, for lack of a better word, poofy. She looked something like a panda with her hair in buns on her head, but it actually made her look kinda cute.

"Um, hi… I'm here to join team Gai?" Naruto said loudly but nervously into the clearing. The two Things, most likely Rock Lee and his sensei Maito Gai looked up, before they rushed over.

The larger of the two held out his hand which Naruto accepted, though he grimaced as he felt the firm handshake rattling his hand's bones. "Welcome to my team. I see your flames of youth must be very bright for you to join a team ahead of you! If you don't fit in this team I swear I will run around Konoha 500 times on my hands with a giant turtle on my back!"

Suddenly the two green spandex monsters were dragged away by the girl, who promptly walked up before Naruto's stunted growth form. "Not much to replace Neji" she said quietly before offering her hand for a handshake. "Hi, I'm Tenten, those two are Gai-sensei and Lee. Our old team mate was Hyuuga Neji, but he's a chuunin now. He may come around from time to time. Anyway, I hope you get used to those two quickly else it will drive you insane. Also… we want to do the chuunin exam quickly, pick up your training, rookie."

Her voice carried no edge, despite the stern look on her face when she told him to 'pick up the pace'. Naruto also realized he gained a nickname for life the moment she called him 'rookie'. Silently he thought to himself that she would probably call him that even if he made Hokage. Still, the term was more endearing than 'Demon Brat'.

"Now" Started the voice of Gai as he appeared before the two of them as well, Lee in front of him and to the right. "I believe we should introduce ourselves to our new team mate. I'll start."

"I am Maito Gai, the Green Beast of Konoha. I like training and helping people with their Flames of YOUTH! I dislike hip attitudes like my eternal rival Kakashi's, my hobbies are training and writing, and my specialty is taijutsu. My dream for the future is to pass on my taijutsu prowess to the next generation."

"Your Flames of youth burn brightly! Yosh! I am Rock Lee. I like training, I dislike people who consider themselves natural geniuses instead of working for their strength. My hobbies are training and… training. My dream for the future is to become a great ninja with only taijutsu, proving that hard work overcomes natural genius. My new youthful friend, I should warn you, I only use taijutsu as I cannot use anything else, but I am still looking forward to sparring my flames of youth against yours.

"I am Tenten" A roar of ominous thunder from the strangely clear blue sky made her last name impossible to hear "That keeps happening!"

"Your flames of youth cause the sky to roar oh youthful team mate!"

"Shut up Lee. Anyway, I like weapons and training. I dislike green spandex, loud people, idiots, spoiled brats, and people who assume kunoichi are weak. My hobbies are forging weapons and training. My dreams for the future are to meet Tsunade-sama and to become Konoha's best ninja, proving kunoichi are just as strong as their male counterparts."

"I am Uzumaki Naruto. I like training and making new techniques. I dislike the privileged and most of the villagers, but I don't blame them for their behavior, they are simply ignorant. My hobbies are reading and making new techniques. My dream is to become Hokage. However, I must say I am like Lee in some facets… recently I lost the ability to channel large amounts of chakra. The only moves I can do are E-rank, and the Kage Bunshin technique as it splits chakra rather than channeling it. I plan to become Hokage by creating 996 techniques out of the three basic academy jutsu, E-rank elemental jutsu, and Kage Bunshin"

The three other members of Team Gai had their eyes bugged out. Making 996 jutsu out of E rank jutsu and a knijutsu. Many jounin didn't even create more than a technique or two in their lifetime. Heck, the Hokage had only created a few dozen, most of his simply being ones he had figured out from other countries or gotten from the rest of the village, or the Hokage Library.

"That is quite a goal Naruto-san! You will need your flames of youth to burn brightly in order to achieve such a task! First off, I must offer for you to join the green beasts of Konoha!"

Gai held out to Naruto a green spandex suit, but Naruto replied quickly to it, shaking his head. "I don't like green… I like orange."

Suddenly, Gai turned around, and began fishing through a variety of storage scrolls, before finally pulling out an orange spandex suit. Naruto happily took it, despite Tenten sighing, and slipped off into the woods, putting it on before coming back. Gai also offered him the orange leg-warmers, and attached 30 pounds of weight to each leg. Naruto would be feeling that.

"Now, we have quite a simple schedule here, Naruto-san. First, we do taijutsu training, then team exercises, then we get 2 D-rank missions done, then do more team training, then end at 7 PM. I will help you in anything after the two missions, but the time before that is predominantly physical exercise. Now, let the new Team Gai get on with the training! YOSH!

(Two Weeks Later)

Team Gai was standing in the Hokage's office awaiting their first missions for the day. They had completed 14 D-rank missions in the past two weeks, and Naruto was getting sick of it. They'd captured that damn cat eight times. EIGHT TIMES! One day they caught the stupid thing TWICE!

"Now, we have a few D-ranks you all can still do. There is a house that needs to be painted, a garden that needs weeding, Oh! And Tora has escaped again!"

Naruto was shaking silently while the man spoke, while the Hokage sat by and let this man give out crap missions to Naruto, his team mates wearing defeated looks. At the mention of Tora, he just couldn't take it anymore.

"THESE AREN'T MISSIONS! These are jokes! We are SHINOBI ("and kunoichi" Naruto added because not including that word would mean a beating from Tenten) and we shouldn't be wasting our skills in the village doing chores!'

The Hokage smiled at the outburst. It had been the first time since Iruka's death he had acted as his old brash self. He was much more calm and collected now, but he still acted like the old Naruto every once in a while.

"Naruto-baka!" Tenten yelled, smacking him over the head, while Lee said that Tenten's flames of youth were dying out. Gai bowed to the Hokage in apology, but everything stopped when the Hokage began laughing.

"What's so funny?" Naruto asked the still snickering Hokage.

"Heh, eh, ahhhh, funny. I was just wondering how long it would be before you asked me. Well, here ya go, it is a C-rank. There is a town to the northwest that has been having some bandit problems. Shouldn't be a big deal for you, considering Tenten and Lee have done this before. Though Naruto, maybe I should place you somewhere else and give them someone more experienced."

"Like HELL old man. That's my C-rank, Let's go!" Naruto said, while he performed a kawarimi on the scroll, sending it to his hand and replacing it in the Hokage's hand was a small note that said 'Thanks' with a chibi of a fox Naruto smiling.

Inside Naruto's head said fox was berating the boy… but he could not be heard.

Gai turned to his team and got the scroll of Naruto before telling them all to meet at the north gate at 7:00 AM and to be ready to leave.

Chapter End.

Well, there ya go. Next chapter we see the beginnings of Naruto's rise to power, with his original E-rank jutsu based techniques. By the way, I don't believe I myself could create 996 different jutsus from E-ranks, but I already have a set list Naruto WILL have that has, as of right now, over 90 combinations. If you have ideas for your own, feel free to post them. Remember, they must be comprised of only the three academy jutsu, Kage Bunshin, and E-rank elemental jutsu like something that will move a glass's worth of water, or create a match-light for lighting a fire. Also, if you have another idea for a move that could split chakra, feel free to recommend and explain it and I will consider adding it. I will get there, really.

Review Plz!


	2. More Moves

Kawarimi no Naruto

Hey all. This is chapter 2, be prepared to see some awesome combos. I realize that the Hokages must know '1000' techniques, but think of it this way, as long as nothing is used the same way, it is a different move, right? Housenka is just goukakyuu, but smaller and more rapid. All raiton jutsu are essentially the same, as are all wind, water, and earth. Naruto will just be 'manipulating' different moves rather than elements. Anyway, you'll see.

Chapter 2: More Moves More Moves More Moves

Tenten grumbled at the blonde boy's writing next to her. Here she was looking out for possible danger on the road while the blond and a clone looked through a physics textbook he'd pulled from a storage scroll and wrote down furiously on a pad of paper…. His calculations beyond her comprehension. Meanwhile, her other team mate bounced up and down as he did flips through the air, trying to do more in between each trunk, even when they increased speed. Gai, at the front of the pack, wanted them at the town in three days, and if they didn't he would "do 500 laps around Konoha hopping on one hand with a kunai stuck to his nose with chakra."

Peeking over at Naruto's calculations again, she sighed. She didn't know a damned thing… How'd this kid get BAD grades?

"Hey Rookie, what is with the textbook? I know you need to learn new moves, but what good will Physics do you?"

Naruto just tilted his head up, gave her a wide grin, then looked down at his writings with restored vigor. "You'll see later."

Tenten simply sighed, then went back to running. It would be a pain to get anything out the rookie.

The pattern continued on for three days, Tenten occasionally talking with Lee, training in taijutsu before setting out, and running… well, running, reading, and writing for some.

She had even seen Naruto talk to Lee concerning a few moves and overheard bits of the conversation, but all she gathered from those talks was that Naruto had figured out something not possible. Finally, on the third day, just as they pulled into town, she saw Naruto put away his notebook, a grin on his face. She caught sight of the last page he'd had opened, and it showed the words '_Number 5 completed_'

Yes, she was interested.

(The Hotel)

They spent the night in the hotel, Gai collecting information about the bandit camp while Naruto, Tenten, and Lee talked and settled in, tomorrow they would be attack the camp, and Tenten would get to see this infamous attack 5, only 995 to go for Naruto.

Team Gai set out early in the morning, scouting the woods in formation for the infamous bandits. They soon found them, their camp about two miles outside of the town… though something was off.

Gai told his students to stay behind while he scouted the perimeter of the camp, in hope of shaking of the funny feeling he'd been getting since they got closer to the camp. Using a vision enhancing jutsu, Gai finally noticed what was wrong about the situation… the leader was a chuunin, and they were preparing to move out.

Returning to his pupils, Gai quickly explained their plan of action. "There is a chuunin in the camp, and no doubt a few genin level ninjas acting as guard. We cannot retreat to get help, as their raid looks to be planned for either tomorrow or the day after, so it looks like you all are getting your first taste of a B-rank mission. Lee, you and I are going to charge from the front, Tenten take support, and Naruto protect her. If you can, identify and kill the genin, retreat from the chuunin, let me take him. We move in 2 minutes."

Those were the two longest minutes of Naruto's life. Finally, a challenge, and he would spend it not attacking, but protecting Tenten. Just being left on the sidelines to rot. Silently he thought to himself how much he'd like a chance at the chuunin, just to show off his new move for Tenten-chan… '_Wait, chan? Where'd that come from? No, forget it, focus on the mission_'.

Naruto heard the signal, and saw Lee and Gai-sensei charge out, the former taking out a bandit with a punch, the latter cracking two skulls together with his bare hands. Three down, about 30 to go.

Tenten summoned her scrolls and shouted "**Ninpou: Rising Dragon no jutsu!**", the two scrolls spinning around her whilst she blanketed the camp with weapons… and killed or seriously wounded 8 people, one of which became a log.

'Kawarimi' Naruto thought, too busy to notice that Tenten had just slaughtered many people, and he turned to see a slightly cut man with a forehead protector, a slash through the symbol of the Cloud Village. Naruto would've commented on the it had he not been dodging the kunai thrown by the man.

Landing next to Tenten in the hope of keeping his fire away from her while she continued to slaughter bandits, Naruto faced the man. "I see I got a genin of the group."

"I'll still prove more than enough to kill you, you little brat."

"I'll wait until I see it, before I bother believing a baka like you."

"Last thing you'll ever say ass-wipe" The missing-nin genin said before tossing a few shuriken at Naruto.

The blonde boy deflected the shuriken easily and switched himself with a clone, just in time as a kunai protruded from the back of the neck. From his hiding spot in a nearby tree, Naruto began to put his plan into action, before he realized Tenten was now unprotected.

Seeing the kunai heading for her, too fast for her to dodge or block while still blanketing the camp in weapons, Naruto performed a quick kawarimi… putting himself in front of the kunai and taking it in the chest. The genin smirked, until Naruto grabbed onto his hand.

"Don't you EVER touch her. You hear me? Don't you touch her, or I'll **KILL YOU!!**" the blond boy exclaimed in a fiery rage. Red chakra began circling his body, so powerful it was visible, and he began his new technique.

"**NINPOU: LETHAL IMPACT NO JUTSU!**" Naruto shouted, while going through a set of handseals that just looked like kawarimi and Kage Bunshin over and over again.

The genin looked surprised, but grinned when Naruto finished the seals and nothing happened, the red chakra receding until it disappeared.

"Not so tough after all, are you?" The genin taunted.

"Famous last words…" Naruto muttered. He placed a kunai in front of him, then let all the chakra he had been letting seep out finally form itself into a jutsu.

Naruto disappeared from sight, then a buzzing sound was heard, and suddenly the genin no longer had a face, or head, or upper torso. Tenten finished off her last opponent just in time to turn and see Naruto take the kunai for her, and just continued to stare out of the corner of her eye, partially focused on using chakra strings to recover her weapons.

She saw him disappear, and reappear, but what she didn't see was all the lines that suddenly adorned the tree she was standing on, until the tree promptly fell apart into neatly organized logs.

Lee and Gai returned shortly after to find an unconscious Naruto with a rapidly healing hole in his chest, and a slightly battered and confused Tenten, who looked like she'd fallen 20 feet to the ground, her eyes still wide while she stared at Naruto.

"What happened to Naruto-kun?" Gai asked, heaving the boy onto his back.

"I'm not sure, but I think I just witnessed jutsu number 5. He moved even faster than you… maybe even faster than Yondaime once had…and for the life of me I don't know how."

"Well, we'll figure it out. The mission is done for now, let's head back to the hotel and rest, then we can head back home. We'll need the rest."

"Hai, Gai-sensei" Tenten responded, before looking at Naruto's still figure again. All she could wonder was '_How the FUCK did he do that?_'

(Hotel, that night)

Tenten, Lee, Gai, and Naruto had gotten two rooms: Gai, Naruto, and Lee in one, Tenten in the other, a shared onsen between the two. When asked why they had gone so fancy, Gai told Naruto that it was because they had a long day, but told the others it was because it was his first kill, he deserved something to calm his nerves.

Naruto was sitting in the onsen between the two rooms when he heard a rattling. "Lee, you can come in, just please god have a towel on this time!" Naruto shouted at the door.

The rattling stopped, and the door opened, though Naruto's eyes stayed fixed on the open air above him, the cool night air balancing out well with the hot water of the onsen.

"Hey Rookie, you should relax. Even from here I can see you're tense."

"Ah, Tenten-chan, are you clothed?"

She blushed slightly, both for being referred to with a –chan and from the fact that he wanted her clothed… at least that meant he must find her somewhat attractive, right? She had something worth covering? Not that it mattered, she liked Neji, for now at least.

"Yea Rookie-hentai."

Tenten was indeed clothed, in a white tank-top she often wore beneath her chinese shirt and her classic chinese style pants that so happened to be waterproof. Her feet were bare.

Tenten lowered her legs from the knees down into her side of the onsen, Naruto having put up a screen around himself after she'd first entered.

"Look, the first kill is always the hardest, but we are ninja, it is what we are meant to do. We are weapons for the greater good."

"I know, and the killing doesn't bug me so much, but what did was the fact that we call it weapons for the greater good. That man I killed had something I have never seen before, showing in his eyes. An understanding of the world, an understanding of conflict. He knew something I want to know, but I dread I know what it is."

"What do you mean? He was just a bandit right, someone on the outside."

"Yes, he was, and that is what I fear. Had he been in cloud country, or rock country, and acted as a bandit those villages would have done the same thing. 'History always favors the victor', a phrase I discovered while reading. What if I grew up in Rock country? Would I think of Konoha as evil, or would I believe myself evil simply for existing to oppose the Leaf? Are all villages the same, just like us?"

"I can't answer that. I haven't been to stone. All I know for sure, is that when you are on the outside, you must either pick a side to survive, or try to go it alone, without any major support. The people we killed today tried the latter… we were just doing the job of the former. You're not thinking of leaving, are you?"

"I don't know, Ten-chan. I don't know. I wouldn't be able to become Hokage, but I may learn more techniques… All I know is that sometime soon, I gotta get out of the village, I do."

"I know, I felt like that too. It's okay, you'll be fine. But if you don't mind my asking, what was that move you did to beat him?"

"Ninpou: Lethal Impact no jutsu: A combination of Kawarimi no jutsu, Kage Bunshin no jutsu, and the basic workings of physics to move the user faster than the speed of light, to create teleportation with inertia."

"Okay, but how does that work?"

"Simple. I create a Kage Bunshin that runs towards me while I switch with a log, until the Kage Bunshin switches with the log as well. The inertia build up from the Kage Bunshin is retained by the frozen point in time when it switches with the log. Repeat the process over and over, and you get the inertia of me at full sprint multiplied by however many times the process was completed. I did it, with the help of Kage Bunshins about 500 times in the 10 seconds, then switched in front of him and let the inertia release itself. The force of 500 Naruto's in an instant. Move number 5."

Tenten really only understood the very first and last sentences, and just got the gist of it. '_Rookie's getting too smart for his own good, making my brain hurt isn't cute._'

"Eh… okay…" Tenten said, feigning understanding. Naruto laughed on the other side of the curtain. Tenten scolded him for making fun of her, but soon got out and let her feet dry. Then, looking up at the sky, she sighed.

"Good work today… Naruto-kun."

She then stood up and let herself out of the onsen, and back into her room where she slowly drifted off to sleep. Naruto left the onsen as well, and went to sleep that night thinking about Tenten. She'd finally called him 'Naruto'. By tomorrow, he'd be 'Rookie' again.

(Next Day)

"Bandits! They are raiding the town! Didn't we hire ninja to stop this?!" A tall man yelled out, running down the road away from two men, one with an axe, the other wielding what looked to be a garden hoe. The tall man's breath suddenly gave out as he fell, an axe burying itself in his back moments later, while the other man began searching his pockets.

Gai and Lee were already at the front gates of the town, fighting off bandits left and right, but they were outmatched. They weren't simply bandits, they were genin and chuunin. This left Tenten and Naruto to hunt down the bandits hat got past, and into the town.

Leaping across the rooftops, they spotted the two men, then three other pairs of bandits raiding shops… and one man alone, setting things on fire with just his hands…. An odd sight. Motioning to each other in sign language, they agreed to split up, Tenten taking the genin and bandits, and Naruto going after the odd man with the fire.

(With Naruto)

"Hey you! Bandit! Any last words?" Naruto said, landing about 10 feet behind the man.

"Eh?" Was the clever response. The man turned around, and Naruto was suddenly very curious as to how he mistook this guy for just any other bandit, even one wielding fire.

He was 5'5", wearing a brown leather tunic with 'Pyro' written on the front in red. He was also wearing ninja-style black pants, and had a belt on, fiery red. His face did not betray his age, he could've been anywhere from 20 to 40… He had a white beard, which was strange because his hair was black and short. On his hands he wore black and silver gloves, with a rough-looking black patch on each of his fingers and thumbs. Overall… nothing about the guy was quite normal.

"I can't have last words without first ones, can I?" The man said, before going back to playing with fire.

"Y-you just spoke! How can you claim you haven't spoken?" Naruto asked, suddenly forgetting about the bandits getting past Gai and Lee….

"Ah, not what I said. My first words were spoken by someone else. When something is not started, it cannot be finished."

Naruto just stared at the man, who was now turned away from him, somehow shooting fire from his hands. And that was when Naruto realized something, fire jutsus are done from the mouth, to shoot it from his hands he would need to be MAKING fire with his hands which would require full mastery of the fire element… the guy was using chakra to do that… the guy must've been at least a jounin….

"Ah shit" Naruto muttered to himself.

"Ah shit what?" The man asked, still utterly oblivious.

"I still must ask you to stop burning people's shops" Naruto said in a neutral voice, hoping to convince the man not to attack him.

"Why can I not burn my own shop? It won't burn down, so what is the problem?" The man once again said in a matter-of-fact tone.

'His own shop? Who the heck IS this guy?' Naruto thought to himself. "Hey, who are you?"

"Glad you asked." He said, turning around. Suddenly, a squirrel the size of a horse appeared beneath him, sneezing fire, while he did a little jig atop it, announcing "I am a man feared wherever I go, a man who makes women fall to their knees in desire, a man who cannot be beat, the squirrel summoner, master of fire, I AM THE GREAT AKUMA!"

In a bathhouse somewhere in fire-country, a man named Jiraiya sneezed and was subsequently attacked and beaten by angry, angry women.

"Never heard of you." Naruto said, deadpanning.

Akuma fell off the squirrel, who sneezed fire again then disappeared. "Anyway, do you think you could help us with these bandits?" Naruto asked, "You would make this a lot easier…."

Akuma just looked at the boy, then burst out laughing "Why in god's name would I help you? I am a sage, I travel around and gain knowledge and jutsu. I'll tell you what though, if you can show me a jutsu I've never seen before, I will get rid of all the remaining bandits, and even let you in on a little secret, if you can't figure it out that is. Trust me, I've seen over 5000 jutsu, and know more than 1000 myself."

Naruto nodded his head in agreement.

"And" Akuma continued "If you can't, you need to follow me as a servant for an undefined length of time, whenever I want you to come with me. Think of it as you becoming my slave at some point, when I feel the need to have one."

Naruto gulped, but nodded. If the guy could get rid of all the bandits, then it was worth it. Otherwise, Team Gai may not make it out alive.

"Okay, prepare yourself. **NINPOU: Lethal Impact no Jutsu!**" Naruto said, putting 20 times his inertia at max speed into the attack, and subsequently knocking out three bandits that were nearby.

Akuma yawned, then said "Two more tries to find one I haven't seen."

Naruto simply grumbled under his breath. That meant this man had either seen him at the bandit camp somehow, or he'd seen someone else do that move before. Pulling out move #6, Naruto quickly went through the handseals, targeting a nearby bandit who was raiding a food stand.

'I hope this works' Naruto thought to himself. 'Got to test it sometime'.

Naruto created a Kage Bunshin while running towards the bandit, silently sneaking up behind him and stabbing a kunai into the man's stomach. The man screamed out in pain, while the Kage Bunshin finished handseals, holding the seal for Kawarimi. "**NINPOU: Kawarimi Body Explosion no Jutsu**" The clone shouted, replacing itself with the kunai and appearing where it had been…. Inside the body of the man. Without the ability to disrupt another's chakra, the man felt a body appearing within his own, and suddenly exploded, leaving a very, very gross looking clone standing where he had been.

"There, bet you haven't seen that happen before" Naruto exclaimed, proud that he would convince Akuma to push back the opposing force of bandits.

However, Akuma just shook his head, and said "Last chance".

Naruto was now looking around frantically. Though he was happy his experimental technique, Kawarimi Body Explosion, worked, he was more concerned with the fact that he couldn't think of anything… until he remembered something he'd read one night about controlling chakra.

'_To perform techniques, ninja need to use their chakra. Chakra comes from two places, 1. Their physical energy garnered from their trillions of cells and muscle development of their body, and 2. The energy drawn from their spiritual portion, fueled by experience, knowledge, and exercise of the mind._ _To perform jutsus, ninjas use handseals to mold the two energies in equal amounts, to perfectly exercise the mind and body into the technique._'

'So' Naruto began thinking 'techniques use an equal amount of each energy, but if a technique requires less spiritual and more physical, like taijutsu, it is more the physical energy that is trained. Likewise, if a technique is a genjutsu, it requires more brain power than physical energy, so a technique must START with equal amounts of each energy, but once released must be able to alter itself. If there was a way to forcibly alter it, then that could open a world of techniques, and I think I have an idea for one right now…'

Naruto looked at Akuma with complete confidence, and proclaimed "I have a technique for you that no ninja has ever seen before, let alone tried. Watch carefully." Naruto said, before making 4 Kage Bunshin. The clones moved over to a nearby bandit and held him down by his arms and legs. Unable to move, Naruto moved in front of the man, rolled up his right sleeve, and bent down in front of his head forming hand seals.

'_Ram, for power, Bird for flight, Snake for trickery, Rat for control, and the last hand-seal for Ino's shintenshin, for mind._' Naruto felt the power moving through his hands, he'd gotten the first bit right.

"**Ninpou: Mind Crush no Jutsu**" Naruto announced, and he felt his hand turn ethereal, like when Ino's spirit launches when she performs her shintenshin.

Pushing it into his opponents body, Naruto felt nothing, exactly what he wanted to feel. However, he wanted to be able to touch his opponents mind, not have just have his hand float through it. The man beneath Naruto was struggling furiously, but to no avail, the clones held him tight.

Moving his right hand so that it would be around his opponents brain, Naruto came up with an idea. 'Half-seals! Of course! They are only supposed to be possible with bloodlines that allow it, but that is because that it the only time they are supposed to be useful. If I can mold more chakra of a different composition into this, then the attack will change!'

Putting his left hand, which was still solid, into half a ram seal, he began releasing purely his physical energy, then placed the hand onto his right arm, forcing the energy into it. He could literally feel the composition of the jutsu changing, the ratio of physical to mental energy was now 70 percent to 30 percent. His hand wavered for a moment after the change, but Naruto held control, his hand now solid within his opponents body, within the skull. With one swift movement, he crushed the brain of the man, before ripping it out of the man's body and allowing the chakra flow to stop.

"Well, Akuma-san, ever seen THAT happen before?" Naruto asked while hiding his inner sickness at what he had just done. The clones poofed away and Naruto felt a strain in his arm from the attempt to forcefully use more chakra than his body could allow, but overall he was fine. Within his mind, he was mourning, but also celebrating. 'Only 993 more jutsus to learn, and I just opened a new door to get there.'

"Uhm… no, I have not seen that before. Very well, I am a man of my word, I will scare off the rest of them. **Kuchiyose no jutsu**" He called out, before a 150 foot tall squirrel appeared.

The squirrel had a line of red fur down its back, and its hands were padded with the same material Akuma had on his gloves. Standing atop its head was Akuma. He whispered in the squirrel's ear, before settling back on its head, while the squirrel looked over the mass of bandits.

"GET THE F*** OUT OF HERE YOU STUPID F***ING BANDITS BEFORE I FLAME ALL YOUR ASSES INTO NEXT WEEK! YOU HEAR ME?! I WILL F***ING KILL ALL YOU BASTARDS IF YOU AREN'T GONE FROM MY SIGHT IN THE NEXT F***ING 3 SECONDS!"

Needless to say, the bandits all left within a few seconds, Gai and Lee trudging back to the hotel thankful for whatever the hell just summoned a gigantic squirrel, for once not exclaiming about flames of youth, while Tenten was still helping villagers. Only Naruto was with Akuma.

"Well kid, I did as promised."

"Thank you, for showing me a new way." Naruto said solemnly, the man's challenge had made him open the door to a new world of jutsu.

"I showed you nothing, you figured it out for yourself. I have seen every elemental jutsu you could possibly know, and every ninpou you could possibly know, even ones you've supposedly created. That, whaddya call it, Mind Crush jutsu you did was something though. I have never seen someone so young figure out how to adjust chakra releases in that way. I though I would never find someone else who would think of it…"

"Thank you… Wait, someone else? You mean, you have done that before?"

"Yes" Akuma replied, suddenly gaining a distant look upon his face. "I was 40 when I figured it out, 30 when I mastered it, and 20 when I went out as a sage trying to find someone else who could rival me in releasing chakra that way."

Naruto simply looked confused, he'd obviously mixed up his ages, or he was simply a lunatic. Akuma saw the look and started laughing.

"Yeah, I once thought like you did, in linear, but since I mastered it I've thought differently, it comes with the territory, y'know?"

Naruto just nodded, the wise sage continued. "Say kid, you got a solid head on those shoulders, you are the first person I've met who has figured that out, so what do you say you accompany me on a trip?"

"Nuh-uh, I won the bet, you got rid of the bandits, and I am NOT gonna be a slave."

"I don't want you as a slave, kid, I want you as a student. In three months I'll come get you, and we can go on a little training trip. It'll only take 3 years or so, and I promise you'll learn more about that little trick you just thought up."

"3 YEARS?! ARE YOU KIDDING! I'll need that time, I want to be a jounin in three years time, so I can get access to more scrolls."

Akuma just shook his head. "And you think higher level scrolls will hold more answers than you can get from me? I am disappointed. All high level scrolls usually have are techniques that cost lots of chakra, or new methods of training. All the conceptual stuff you can find at any library. I'll give you some time to think about it, I'll be in Konoha in three months, looking for you…. Who are you?"

Naruto face-vaulted, but quickly recovered. "Uzumaki Naruto."

"Taranogii Akuma. Be seeing you." He said, before disappearing in a plume of flame. '_A flame element shunshin, now there's a new one._' Naruto thought before heading back to the hotel. When he got home, there'd be lots of reading to do.


	3. Offensive Jutsus My Butt

Kawarimi no Naruto

Starting to see where this is going? I hope you like my new jutsus, they are most entertaining for me at least. I hope you are enjoying the fic, and please read and review. Send me new jutsus if you want, as you hopefully have read, I opened a new world for jutsus for Naruto.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its contents. Insert joke about what would happen if I did own Naruto

Team Gai returned home quickly, sprinting all the way back much to Tenten's displeasure. Arriving at the gates, they were admitted once again into the village, then went their separate ways. Lee and Tenten moved to go train, while Gai left to give the mission report, leaving Naruto at the gate to decide where he would go. Walking back to his apartment, he figured he would just find out what to work on next. He had 3 months until Akuma would arrive, may as well get started.

'_That chakra balancing bit, at the start of the jutsu. There has to be some information on its different effects, but where could I find that? I only have genin level clearance, not enough to see chuunin level or jounin level control concepts. I can't ask the Hokage for another favor, the council is already on his back for pushing me into a team further ahead. All I can do now is… Get promoted. Tenten said we'd be participating in the next exams, right? Those are in…2 months. So I have three months to perfect my jutsu so that I can pass the exams. I don't need the physical bit now.. so much as the jutsu. Time to go abuse Kage Bunshin some more!_'

Arriving at the door to his apartment, he let himself in and walked over to his bookshelf. He had long since figured out the library didn't want him to be there, though they were reasonable enough to let him check out books, even if he would have to pay absurd late fines even if the books weren't late. Setting a few clones to work, reading up on physics, Naruto sat down to ponder his thoughts.

Flipping a kunai to himself, a trick he'd learned to calm himself, he began going over his jutsus and realized a weakness, a potentially fatal one. '_Lethal impact no jutsu is only useful if I'm given enough time to repeat the handseals…Mind Crush no jutsu requires me to concentrate as well… and body explosion requires me to get a hit first. I have no way to hit someone at a range quickly… If I go up against a wind-user or something of the like I'll have no chance!_'

And so began the process of developing a new jutsu. Having read through some textbooks he'd discovered some basic E-rank utility elemental jutsus, ones that created small flames like a lighter, or conjured small quantities of pure water to drink. Picking up a textbook entitled 'Fire Techniques and You: What to Expect From the Will of Fire' he flipped through the pages until coming across the technique. One handseal was needed for this puny jutsu: Tiger, as the jutsu was aptly name "Infant's Fire no Jutsu".

Next to it was a technique called "Land of Fire no Jutsu" that did not show the handseals, but described its effects. Essentially, it blanketed the area in fire the user would be immune to, and kept the user and the target trapped in this dome of flame. At the bottom the textbook mentions that it requires a vast amount of chakra to use and basically no control. Naruto looked at it longingly for a moment, before turning back to the "Infant's Fire no Jutsu".

'_Dammit… only 993 techniques left to do… freaking electric shuriken of chakra-system-rape_' Making the Tiger seal, Naruto inhaled slightly and molded his chakra perfectly, only to blow out a small cloud of smoke. '_And now I need to charge up a basic E-rank technique to use it. Correction: F***ing Electric Shuriken of Chakra-System Rape F***_'

Charging up the technique for a second, Naruto inhaled and let out a small plume of flame, no larger that his fist, which lasted as long as he breathed outwards. Swirling the chakra a bit as he breathed out, the fire began to dance and spiral, but was really nothing more than a miniature light show. However, to Naruto, this small bit of fire was worth it.

'_With the ability to make fire, at least I can expand my realm of jutsus. All I need to do with this one is…condense it._'

Summoning several clones, he had all of them create small amounts of flame, swirling it and condensing it into a sphere about the size of his hand. The orb looked destructive enough, but the moment the clones stopped breathing, it died out. '_That.. was not a technique. It needs to be supported by chakra right? Maybe I can keep it going by expelling chakra from my hand, and holding it_.'

Trying the experiment again, this time holding it in his hand, Naruto expelled chakra from his hand but found that his palm was too large a point with too little chakra coming out to keep the orb supported. It simply died out again.

'_Great.. I can do advanced physics and geometry, and trig and chemistry, but I can't keep a stupid fire going in my hand, something I'll bet just about any idiot ninja with a katon technique has done!_'

Pondering on the technique for a few moments longer, Naruto figured he could just expel chakra from different points to gain the same effect, a small amount from each. Breathing fire on his hand without the aid of clones, he winced slightly as he felt it heat his hand up, but with a protective wall of chakra on his palm and his fingertips, he was able to prevent burning himself. Channeling chakra out his fingertips, he watched as the orb split again, but this time instead of going out, it became 5 marble-sized orbs of fire at the tip of Naruto's fingers. Pushing the fire against a section of carpeting that was still intact, He watched as it caught fire and burned away, leaving charred remains.

Amazed that he had created a useful technique in such little time, Naruto set out for the training field to test it.

(Team Gai Training Ground)

"Hey Naruto!" Lee called, Tenten having gone home already at 7 PM. The night sky rest overhead, stars shining as it was already close to 10 PM. The moon was full, providing light for the two spandex wearing shinobi to train, Lee in forest green, Naruto in bright orange.

"Hey Lee. Can you help me with something? I want to see how practical this new technique I came up with is in combat."

"Sure Naruto-kun." Lee responded, turning away from his battered training post and facing Naruto, taking up his Iron Fist stance. Naruto responded likewise with the style he'd been using, though it was incomplete. Drawing in a short breath, he made the tiger seal and activated his technique, allowing the fire to weaken but condense onto his fingertips, on both hands. "Katon: Burning Hands no Jutsu"

Charging forward, Naruto swiped his right hand across Lee's chest, but Lee dodge under it and came up with a kick to Naruto's chin, which he easily side-stepped. Lashing out with a kick, Naruto clipped Lee's gut as the green-spandexed youth grabbed the offending limb, and pulled Naruto into a punch, then jumped up to deliver a roundhouse to Naruto's face.

Flying backwards, Naruto flipped in mid-air and sprinted while Lee was settling back into his stance. Going for a low sweep, he forced Lee to jump over it, then shot his right arm backwards mid-kick, scorching Lee across his chest, or at least that's what he thought it would do. Lee jumped back and looked at the black marks on his spandex, then turned to a mildly embarrassed Naruto with a questioning look.

Rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, all the blond could manage to say was "I… figured it would be stronger than that.". Internally, Naruto was berating himself. '_Of course you didn't just create a godly flame move! You can barely use chakra! If you're lucky and your opponent isn't wearing a shirt, maybe you can burn his arm hairs off! No, better yet, use it in a beauty clinic as a 'better than waxing' approach to leg hairs!_'

The internal mocking of himself didn't go unnoticed by Lee, who patted his back sympathetically before returning to his training post. All Lee could think was '_While I can't use chakra techniques, at least people won't die laughing at me._'

Naruto stopped staring in shock at his hand, then sat down, and began the technique again. He did however notice that the strength of the initial fire was retained by his fingers later. _'If I could produce a more powerful fire technique, or just a larger one to condense, it would be more powerful. All I need to do is figure out how to create more fire without an excess of clones, as that would be useless in combat.'_

Pondering this, Naruto trudged home, dispelled his clones, then promptly fell asleep. Tomorrow would be another day of development, to perfect a melee technique. Then it would be on to ranged techniques. These next two months were beginning to look very, very short.

(One Week Later)

Waking up, Naruto found he was late for team practice and quickly rushed to the field, finding that they'd already started physical conditioning. Moving through the attack pattern set for him, he quickly caught up to them, and began the physical conditioning as well. Two grueling hours of muscle training later and They were let off from doing any D-ranks. Gai had essentially secured the next two months for them to train, having completed enough D-ranks and C-ranks to compete in the chuunin exams.

Lee bowed to his 'Fellow Team Mates of YOUTH!' before bounding away to work on some katas at the edge of the clearing. Ever since Gai had shown him that lotus move, the boy had been training on it furiously.

Tenten on the other hand just turned to leave, having planned to visit her family's shop to pick up some weapons. However, she was caught on the shoulder by a slightly pink-cheeked Naruto.

"Hey Rookie, what's got you so flushed?" Tenten asked, licking a kunai. It was a trick for intimidation she'd picked up watching an older, scary snake jounin.

"Uhm.. well, I kinda needed to ask you something?"

"Spill. What does the _E-rank master_ need from me?" Tenten inquired, putting emphasis on the master.

Naruto hated that name. As soon as he'd told them about the problem he was having upping the power of his technique, and how he'd learned more E-ranks that some civilians could even do just for convenience, she had begun worshipping (mocking) him as the E-rank Master.

"I think I figured out how to get the right amount of power in the technique… and I wanted to try it out."

"Oh, so it's a spar you want. Well, fire it up! Oh, sorry, I mean… _spark_ it up" Tenten said again. '_it's so fun to see him get frustrated, looks cuter that way_' she thought silently.

Naruto made a grumbling noise, but got into ready stance, while Tenten pulled out a bo-staff and got into hers. Naruto had long since learned not to argue when she wanted to spar with a weapon. All it did was make her use more of them.

Making the first handseal of his jutsu, Ram, Naruto gathered chakra for a second. Then, making the Rat handseal, he molded the heat in his lungs into a convex circular shape. Finally, making the Tiger seal, he released the fire except this time it wasn't red… it was white… and accompanied by smoke coming out his nostrils. It also looked much more focused. This is one more reason Naruto was glad for the invention of magnifying glasses.

Flashback no jutsu: Yesterday

Naruto was sitting back in his chair, looking down at a blank sheet of paper he'd been staring at for the last hour. '_For the life of me, I don't know how to condense this stupid, goddamned fire._' Looking around his room his eyes flitted to the picture of Lee on the wall, the day of the D-rank mission where he discovered what a magnifying glass did to crops on a dry summer day… Naruto chuckled at the memory.

'_Ahhh, that was fun. He lit the whole stupid field on fire, didn't get paid for THAT d-rank. I wonder if the old man from that farm ever figured out how the green guy did it? I mean, come on. It isn't every day in Konoha you find a piece of glass that makes the sun hotter in one place or another… Wait a minute. HOTTER!!!_'

Focusing on the heat in his lungs, Naruto remembered one key fact, fire created light. Fire can't be concentrated by a lens, but light can. If he were to create a small amount of the fire in his lungs ALREADY, then extinguish it but contain the light it created… '_I can use my throat as a lens with chakra… then I can enhance the condensed light with fire as it leaves my mouth.. but wait.. where will the smoke go? Eh.. figure that out later_'

Flashback Kai

And that's the reason Naruto now had 5 little balls of white fire on each hand, one at each finger tip… and why there was a small plume of smoke coming out his nose. "**Katon: Searing claws no jutsu!**"

Jumping at Tenten with ferocity, he engaged her in taijutsu, getting in close when her staff's guard lowered. Swinging in low, he tried to sweep out her legs, but she jumped over him, planting her staff in the ground and using it as a balancing point, kicking out at Naruto's face.

Dodging the blow, Naruto flipped backwards, at the same time slashing at chest-level. The attack hit successfully, but only just barely, and scorch marks were left across Tenten's shirt. Jumping at her again, he was unprepared for the heel of her hand launching him into the air, having expected a counter-attack with the staff.

"I have you now! This is for my shirt!" Tenten shouted at him, using her staff to pole-vault into the air and spin, dealing a devastating blow to Naruto's back, shooting him down and making a crater. Still falling, Tenten relaxed her guard and landed. '_no way he's getting up from that_' she thought, smirking triumphantly. Then, whirling around she decided to at least check. However, Naruto wasn't in the crater. Rather, a wooden log. She felt a chakra source coming from her left, but was too late to block it, as Naruto brought his 'searing claws' to rest at Tenten's heart and stomach.

"I win" Naruto said, Tenten dropping her staff in defeat. However, it was only then that he noticed the womanly rage rolling off the girl in waves. Her face shadowed by her hair as she was looking down. Following her gaze, he looked down and lost control of the technique, all concentration gone.

The technique had burned her clothing.. only the tattered and charred remains of half her bra and scraps of her shirt remained, her breasts open to view. Propelled back by a massive nosebleed, Naruto fell unconscious. The senbon needles in his ass would be found when he awoke later.

(Next Day)

'_Great, now I have on offensive tactic for taijutsu. Though, I'm still a little to slow to block everything. God knows a decently sized fireball I can dodge with kawarimi, but that leaves me unable to charge to USE my searing claws technique. If I end up fighting Tenten and she uses that twin dragon technique, I'm screwed. Think! THINK!_'

Throughout his internal rant, Naruto was becoming more and more panicked. In his bedroom he had begun pacing around, hoping to have some kind of epiphany. Alas, none had come. So, turning to one of his favorite past-times, Naruto picked up a scroll he'd gotten from Akuma, as several messenger birds had been sent to him since the mission. Most of the time they were useless or taunting, but Naruto knew the 'Great Squirrel Sage' had to have some reason for sending the stupid things.

Picking up the nearest book, Naruto found it was a story, a legend actually about a ninja who was untouchable, with the perfect defense.

(story-summary)

Jin Shona had been a young boy when he became a legend among the old elemental nations. Only 6 years old, he was strong and capable. However, the elders of his village feared his power. The village hidden in the caves was not a very prosperous village, receiving very few missions because of its location. However, it would not relocate, as it was hidden in a very specific spot. In the mountains, far east of the other elemental nations, there was a volcano, and on the side of the mountain many of the ninja had made caves in the obsidian with various techniques. The techniques themselves supposedly caught the attention of a great spirit which inhabited the volcano. The spirit was angered by the acts of the ninja, but decided them beneficial. Thus, in exchange for one child of promise each year, the spirit granted the ninja great power, enough to rule more and more nations.

The child had to be pure of blood, a descendant of an original ninja of the village. Now, this cycle continued on and on for several decades, the village hidden in the caves had conquered several nations, but had too few original ninja to produce many new heirs, most of them needed to maintain control. However, this control soon slipped. Thus, the nation fell into civil war, and soon the leader was killed, along with several other purebloods.

The deadline approaching, they took the last promising pureblood and threw him into the volcano. Jin Shona became a legend on this day, using his chakra to redirect the chakra-infused lava away from him. Releasing the 8 gates, he pulsed chakra in such large amounts that the lava instead flowed with it, away from him. Jin then shot out of the volcano, and turned his wrath on those who threw him in, those who had deceived him. Destroying the entire village, his power running out soon after, the nation dispersed into its previous borders, the village hidden in the caves now gone. Jin Shona was the first and only person to ever wipe a village off the map entirely. He could not be harmed by chakra based attacks, could not be attacked, his rage destroying all around him with chakra bursts. Thus, the beginning and end of a legend.

(Naruto)

It was late afternoon by the time he finished reading the whole story, over 200 pages long. There had been far more to it than what his brain had summarized, but it had been enough to spark an idea. Chakra, to redirect chakra. Too bad the pulsing idea didn't seem to likely given his condition. 'Though, it's worth a shot.'

Grabbing his gear, he put on his new training clothes. A black undershirt, with a gray and green camouflage coat on top of it, along with black pants with more pockets in the back for scrolls, and two additional compartments for kunai. His headband tied around his waist allowed his hair to fall down around his face, though despite its messiness it didn't impede vision.

Heading to the training field, he found Lee still there running suicides, and Tenten doing more target practice from improbable positions. Walking over to Tenten, ignoring the green blur that was Lee, he tapped her on the shoulder.

"Neh, Tenten, can you help me with something?"

"Sure, rookie. Whatcha need?" she replied in a bored manner.

"Just throw a shuriken at my chest. Wait until I say 'now'?"

"Ah, I get it, E-rank master. So what are you trying now, a technique to use cookies to stop a shuriken? Or are you done with the civilian jutsus?"

"Just watch dammit." Naruto said, slightly annoyed. 'sure, I had to learn some of those, so what? If this new technique works she'll be wishing she had my condition'

Walking 50 feet away, Naruto prepared himself to do the technique. Using the ram seal to focus his tiny flow of chakra, he began attempting to expel the chakra from every part of his body, to create the pulse like Jin had done in his time.

"Now!" He called to Tenten. Opening his eyes, Naruto waited until the shuriken was about to hit, then released the small amount of stored chakra from all his tenketsu. It seemed to wobble for a second, but didn't change course… which of course resulted with something very sharp stuck in his esophagus.

"Well f***. That hurt." Pulling it out, he ignored the wound and blood, and prepared to try a different tactic. 'hmm, it was too weak. I can't store enough chakra to emit it from all tenketsu at once and be strong enough.. Maybe a localized area?'

Focusing once more, Naruto called out "Now!" To Tenten, who threw another shuriken without looking, unaware she had hit him with a shuriken at all.

Focusing his chakra into his hand, Naruto created a small storage, and waited for the oncoming shuriken. Right before it would hit him, Naruto thrust his hand out and put up a shield of chakra in front of his hand.

"F***, not again!" he exclaimed as the shuriken but his palm before he dodged out of the way. 'Not enough chakra for that either'

"Tenten, Let me take a break. I'll come back in a little bit, just need to think awhile."

Tenten nodded, and Naruto set off to a different clearing in the training area, in the woods only about 20 feet in diameter. Sitting in the middle of the clearing, he bandaged himself so the bleeding would stop, and let the fox's chakra heal him good as new. Then, thinking back to the legend, Naruto began drawing up plans for a new defense technique.

'Let's see… So I can't make a full body shield. Or a shield with just my hand. I guess I just can't store enough chakra to do that, so what else can I do? I need some way to disrupt chakra and solid objects… I got it! Chakra always follows the path of least resistance. If you mold chakra into the shape of a dragon and direct it, add an element, instant dragon jutsu. So… if it works that way with all chakra, if you attract enemy chakra to your own somehow, you could redirect attacks! I mean, if healers can use other people's chakra to heal someone, then surely it must be compatible… so now I just need a kind of manipulation that will allow me to launch chakra… Very small amounts of it. The only pure shape manipulation I've ever heard of though is the rasengan.. and I can't possibly do that. I can't expel enough chakra at once. So maybe… there was that Suna skill, chakra strings. Lots of control, hardly any chakra, I just need to figure out how to launch them. Something to work on!'

Naruto's train of thought ended with a smile and the creation of several chakra strings in an instant. Using them to touch several trees and pick a few leaves from branches, Naruto quickly discovered two important things about his chakra strings. He couldn't easily sustain more than two strings at a time, nor could he extend them more than 10 feet. However, controlling them Naruto found endless possibilities, the first of which being a new, more lethal taijutsu style.

Swirling the chakra in the strings as fast as he could, Naruto swung the two of them at a tree, watching as they made deep cuts in the bark, and after a few more hits they cut the tree down. 'With more practice, I may be able to get that in one shot. For once, I'm glad for my control'.

Creating the strings again, Naruto christened his new jutsu **Ninpou: Whip Blades no jutsu**.

So, Naruto set off to train, only 7 weeks left to practice.

(6 weeks later)

Naruto was going through his new taijutsu katas, learned from Gai, to fit his new style. Incorporating his Searing Claws no jutsu, and his Whip Blades no jutsu, Naruto managed to make the fire combine with the whips, to gain even more offensive power, dubbing the jutsu **Katon: Ember Edges no jutsu**. The combined version consisted of 10 chakra strings, 1 from each finger, containing quickly swirling fire meant to make deep gashes and set things on fire. Its reach though was reduced to only two feet.

However, though the jutsu itself could be seen as less useful than either jutsu separated, it was the creation of the jutsu itself which helped Naruto the most.

(Flashback no jutsu)

'Arrrrrgh! Why won't this WORK?!' Naruto screamed internally as he tried and failed again to mold the fire so as to create whips. 'I can't store enough chakra to form the full whip, and it isn't useful when it is that short.. Not unless I can create more whips.'

Turning back to the legend of Jin Shona, Naruto re-read the story all the way through, bringing him late into the night. By the time he'd finished, no one could be heard around for miles. No one except… Uchiha Sasuke?

'What's he doing here? Training? WHO'A SHIT!!!!" Naruto finished aloud as a fireball flew out of nowhere, nearly hitting him. However, as Naruto dodged, his partially created chakra strings caught the end of the fire. Horrified, Naruto watched as the fire traveled up the string and scorched his hand.

"WATCH IT!" Naruto shouted into the forest, but all he heard was the evil cackling of an Uchiha likely gone insane. "dammit.. now what do I do? Oh wait.. It's already healed."

'Hmm.. The fire. It traveled up the chakra string. Energy will always travel the path of least resistance.. thus it must have been easier for the fire to travel up my chakra than it was to keep going. So.. if I were to fire chakra away from me.. as a string, and an attack caught the end of it.. It wouldn't deflect it! It would draw it away! That's just as good. Heck.. if I can figure out a way to launch chakra, I could just hurl it at projectiles too! This could work!'

Naruto quickly set to work on his 'chakra-string-launching' technique. 'I only hope I get to finish it'.

(Flashback Kai)

And so here was Naruto, creating chakra strings and attempting to throw them by cutting off the chakra supply, hoping they have enough chakra to sustain themselves. However, it wasn't going too well. 'I have too little chakra to dispel at a time to truly create a self-sustained string, even for a short while. Though… if I could make the chakra feed itself somehow. The technique should only cost the amount to create the technique, as the chakra isn't performing a function… '

Pondering this thought, Naruto let some chakra strings reign freely, his internal thoughts reflected by the cuts in the bark. One had cut the symbol for 'annoyance', another for 'frustration' and a third one for 'damn this is cool'. However, it did nothing to help.

This was gonna be difficult.


	4. Long Way To Go

Kawarimi no Naruto

Well, here's another chapter. Please read the bottom note as well, it holds some important info. Regardless, I will mention here that I will try to update every week, but with school there may be some slight delays or shorter chapters. Please, just be patient. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this update to KnN! Love ya, readers.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor any of its contents. If I did, I wouldn't do so many goddamned flashbacks.

Chapter 4: Long Way To Go

Naruto, Tenten, and Lee walked up the stairs of the Konoha Academy. This was it, the big day, the Chuunin Exams were finally here.

"We should act weak, see if we can't get the other teams to underestimate us" Lee whispered to his comrades in arms.

"I suppose we should" Tenten agreed. Naruto just nodded and hid his enormous chakra signature, wondering for the billionth time why he had to get hit b a stupid lightning shuriken, and mourning his loss of normal shinobi life. '_Jeez.. this still sucks when I think about it. I'm up to 50 techniques though.. only 950 left to go_'

Sighing, Naruto led their team past the door where a number of genin were standing, staring at the two older shinobi blocking the door. Lee made to go help the other genin and tell them they should go to the 3rd floor, but Naruto stopped him. "Just because we won't show them our power doesn't mean we should go out of our way to help them. Now come on, we can't be late."

However, as they were about to move on, Tenten stopped and looked behind her, having heard the Uchiha tell all the competitors about the genjutsu. Slapping her right hand to her forehead, she shook it side to side, then continued walking with Naruto, whispering to him "Glad you're not quite that stupid, rookie"

"thanks?" Naruto said questioningly, not sure if it should be a compliment that he wasn't stupid, or an insult that he was stupid, just not as much so as the Uchiha. Regardless, this wasn't on his mind very long as Lee had disappeared from the group, apparently having taken an interest in the pink-haired boy.. '_no'_ Naruto corrected himself '_girl. Then again, it was an honest mistake. With a chest that flat she could be a boy. Maybe she knows the Uchiha is gay and is trying to attract him regardless_' Naruto thought to himself, chuckling.

Tenten watched Naruto thinking, before turning away and walking toward the exam room, Naruto in tow. Reaching the door, they just waited for Lee, before heading in, now noticing the rather large hand print on the boy's face, which was shaped oddly like Gai's fist.

The boy didn't even see their questioning looks, so they just filed into the room, and sat down at some desks. "Now, you two. I know your skills are enough for us to get through anything… as are mine. So if the opportunity arises, don't quit. We can always figure out something."

The other two nodded, and they refrained from speaking the rest of the time to keep a low profile, unlike other members of Naruto's class.

(Later)

Naruto and his team were watching the rest of the rookies and their teams. Team 8 with Hinata, Kiba, and Sai was positioned in the corner, with Sai fondling Kiba's butt while he tried to push the hand away, pleading with Hinata that he is not gay, and some other stuff apparently involving a date.

They were followed shortly thereafter by team 7, which consisted of a rather beaten and bruised Sasuke, a pink-haired girl … 'I think' Naruto thought to himself … who was fussing over his wounds, and Yamanaka Ino, a platinum blonde girl who appeared to have gotten over her fangirlism and was currently amusedly watching Kiba pleading with Hinata.

Lastly, Team 10 walked in, looking the most professional of the bunch. Shino led the way, Chouji trailing behind eating chips, and Shikamaru to the side looking annoyed with the whole situation. Nonetheless, they stepped away from the other rookies into a different corner of the room, wisely choosing to avoid the trouble heading toward that part of the room in the form of a gray-haired, purple-garbed 'leaf' ninja.

"Hey rookies, you may want to settle down." He caught their attention "I'm Kabuto, and you guys are quite loud. All the ninja here are serious, and you're drawing too much attention. Quiet down."

At this point, he lowered his voice, and Naruto decided to tune him out. Anyone that old attending the chuunin exams was either weak or a spy. Either way, it was none of his business, proper authorities would sort it out.

Soon, Sound ninja stalked up behind the gray-haired supposed genin, and caused him to throw up with some sort of sound device, though this was quickly halted by the appearance of a scarred man at the front of the room.

"Sit down and shut the fuck up you moronic little pieces of shit, or I'll gut you where you stand." He said, though in a calm, steady voice, making it all the more fearsome. Needless to say, all the genin were sitting quite quickly. Instructors, chuunin, entered in the sides of the room and began leading teams out, one by one. The genin were all told not to talk, so Naruto just leveled a confident look at his team, and waited it out.

Staring at the door and counting teams, Naruto noticed only about one third of the teams leaving were coming back. It seems the team with the Uchiha had made it, as had the other rookies, the sand team which had some kind of crazy red-head, and the sound team, as well as various other teams.

Finally, it was Naruto, Lee, and Tenten's turn to face the music. 'Heh, I wonder if the Sound Village has that expression. Probably means something else there.' Naruto thought idly.

Led out of the room, Naruto, Tenten, and Lee continued to follow their instructor wordlessly, the Chuunin leading them down the hallway, up the stairs, and onto the roof where an ANBU waited with a kunai, and the scarred man waited on a throne, looking down at them in the center of the roof.

"You have 2 minutes to observe everything on this roof, and around this roof within a mile, without leaving this rooftop. At the end of 2 minutes, you will have to tell me at least 50 distinct features, of any kind, from around this area. If you attempt to leave the rooftop in any way, you will be cut down. You may not ask anyone outside your team any questions. Begin."

Naruto turned to Tenten and Lee, and the brainstorming began. "Okay, there need to be at least 50 distinct things about this area. I know of this skill, lots of hunter-nin can notice that many distinct aspects as they move, almost subconsciously. For a chuunin, this level of information gathering must be the standard I suppose. Now… what do we know immediately?"

"We know of the weapons around here and features of training grounds, but that's not too many, no more than 10." Tenten supplied.

"I know this area's materials by heart, and the number of people that are likely within a mile" Lee added.

"I can enhance my hearing, and send out clones to search for random facts. I think the best way to do this is to split up what sections we examine. Lee, I need you to pick out everything within clear eyesight of the rooftop, and take down what you learn."

Lee nodded and took out his infamous notebook, and began writing.

"Tenten-chan, You can use your mirrors to look around more, and to see possible other things that have been planted. We cannot add to the area, but we can observe other minute details."

"Got it rookie" Tenten responded, throwing out a mirror or two, beginning to read off things for Lee to add to the list.

"I'll get everything I can from the woods and the streets. With clones, which I assume are legal" A nod from the scarred man confirmed it. "I can look around the area more easily, and finish off the list"

(2 minutes later)

"48: Exactly 22 birds passed directly over the rooftop. 49: There were 9 traps hidden in the woods in the surrounding area. 50: There were three katanas on training ground B of the academy grounds." Lee finished off his list, having recited it to the scarred man.

"Very good, you pass section 1."

There were smiles passed between the three students, before they waited for the inevitable next section. After all, if there is a section one, there must at least be a section two, right?

"The second half of the test is quite simple. Answer the following question." Lee got his notebook ready.

"You have been assigned a mission by the Hokage to attack an enemy nation's hidden village, alone. There is no back up, and almost a definite certainty of failure. Do you accept the mission?"

Naruto, Tenten, and Lee exchanged looks, before answering quickly: "Yes. Regardless of the level of risk of the mission, the Hokage is the leader and is granted power for a reason. We would sooner abandon our lives than we would our village."

"My name is Morino Ibiki, head of the interrogation and torture department. I hereby pass you through the first stage of the chuunin exam. Return to the waiting room, and the next proctor will be with you at the end of this exam. If you are ever assigned a suicide mission, that is the correct answer, but never hesitate to come to me. After the last war, the 3rd Hokage gave up lots of power, one power of which being the ability to strike down missions unreasonably assigned, such as 'diplomatic' missions by the council and vice versa. Thus, this power was given to an impartial, well-informed advisor. The head of intelligence. It is knowledge known only amongst ninjas loyal to this village. As chuunin prospects, you have proven yourselves worthy of this knowledge. Do not tell anyone else, even other graduates. Their apparent loyalty will determine what they know. Congratulations, and goodbye."

With that, they were led back to the room, where an exhausted Ino was still sleeping, team Shino was as passive as ever, and the rookies, all in all, were lazing about. The end of the exam would come soon.

(2 hours later)

Only 10 teams were left, namely the Konoha Rookies, Team Gai, Kabuto's team, the Sound team, the Sand team, a Lightning team, a Grass team, and a Stone team. The Konoha rookies, looking at the now near-empty room, mostly looked triumphant with the fact that half the remaining teams were 'their' side. Finally, Morino Ibiki walked into the room and broke the silence that had descended.

"Very well, those of you remaining have passed. Remember, very few ever pass the chuunin exams, you are some of the lucky few that made the first cut-

"I guarantee I will cut that in half by the end of the next exam… at the least" A woman's voice said from the corner. The genin all turned to her, some of the men blushing at her attire.

Purple hair tied up in a pineapple-like ponytail, the bangs hanging around her face, she looked over them all with piercing black eyes. Her tan trench-coat barely covered her nipples which would have poked out from under her fishnet black shirt. She also wore an orange skirt, and black combat boots. Flipping a kunai to herself while she looked over them all, she was quite scary.

"Well, well brats. Ready for the next exam?"

A nodding of heads followed, garnered by the killing intent she was letting out, telling all that if they refused then the kunai would be stuck somewhere… uncomfortable.

"Great! Now, let's begin. Follow me!" And they did. All with surprised looks at the sudden change of her mood, from murderous to cheerful.

(l2:00, midnight)

The teams had arrived in a clearing, surrounded on all sides by earthen walls which arose the moment they made it inside, along with four new visitors; four Konoha jounin.

"Yo, eyes HERE" Anko yelled at them, instantly getting the genin's attention. "For the next 2 days, you will be in this clearing. Your objective, get a scroll from a jounin and meet in the cent of the maze. Killing is allowed. You may not leave until you have a scroll, or give up. If you choose to give up, send up a flare of some kind. Begin!"

As she said the word 'begin', hands made of stone threw the genin to different parts of the mile diameter clearing, and hundreds of walls made of stone popped out of the ground, rising a good 40 feet into the air, before growing spikes so as to make them near impossible to climb.

"Well, this sucks" Naruto said, sighing from the pain of being thrown about 1000 feet by a hand made of stone. Tenten nodded in agreement, and for once Lee wasn't shouting about flames of youth.

"Now what?"

"We start looking for a jounin, Rookie." Tenten said, and with that they set off down a narrow, 10 foot wide passage, making sure not to take any turns too quickly to avoid getting scratched.

After 10 minutes of running through the passageways, they found themselves completely and utterly lost.

"I thought we were heading for the center?" Naruto asked, noting that the stars above showed they were close to the back of the clearing, in what shall now be referred to as the left back quadrant.

"I thought we were too rookie. You were leading, can't tell where we're going, can ya?" Tenten remarked, flipping a kunai to herself.

'Seems like lots of kunoichi have that habit. Wonder why?' were Naruto's thoughts, before getting back on topic. "So what should we do?"

"Naruto-kun, I suggest we rest our flames of youth, so that they may recover and shine more brightly tomorrow! YOSH!"

"Well… that would've blown our position, though I doubt anyone could navigate this maze to get to us anyway." The blonde joked, as a knife blade reached for his back.

"LOOK OUT!" Tenten shouted, throwing Naruto to the ground and stabbing the stone ninja in the left eye. The ninja melted into the ground, showing him to be a clone.

"Shit! How'd they get here so quickly?" Naruto said, as he fought off a second clone. Lee was taking on two, and disposed of them quickly with help from the spikes on the walls.

"Isn't it obvious?" a voice said from everywhere, and nowhere visible. "You Konoha ninja are so useless. You must have SOME earth techniques" The voice said again, emerging from the rock as three stone nins came smoothly out of the walls. The passageway was only 10 feet wide, and was straight for a long way, leaving limited fighting room. The stone nins had put themselves between Naruto and the rest of Team Gai.

"Tell you what, give up now and we'll let you two go. Though, this guy, looking like the vile man who befouled our country. You will DIE!" the eldest stone genin said threateningly, releasing a reasonable amount of killing intent.

Looking at Naruto, he spit at his feet and said "Kise Oorino, your executioner." His two teamates blocked the way of Tenten and Lee, leaving Naruto and this genin to duel.

Kise began a set of handseals, and pulled a sword made entirely of dirt from the ground. It looked razor sharp, and the blade was constantly shifting at high speeds, to give it a saw-like effect. "**Doton: Dagger Chainsaw no jutsu!**"

Running at Naruto, he swung his weapon, cutting Naruto across the chest. Smirking in satisfaction, he closed his eyes and breathed out, missing the poof of smoke of the dispelled clone, and the whip of fire heading straight for his back: "**Katon: Ember Edges no jutsu!**"

The whip of fire passed straight through the rock-clone's back, causing it to melt into the ground. A hand from underneath Naruto sucked him into the ground, where he began to suffocate. Focusing quickly on his chakra, Naruto filled his body with 70% spiritual chakra, and 30% physical chakra, allowing him to break the hold of the doton jutsu and sprout of out of the ground as easily as he'd gone in.

"You're good" Kise remakred, smirking.

"You too" was the blondes response. "Let's take it up a notch!" Naruto shouted, beginning handseals. In his two months of training, Naruto ahd learned a number of things, one of the main ones being 1 handed seals, noting how they changed manipulation. If he wanted to create a half-horse, half-monkey manipulation of chakra, he could do so by making an appropriate half-seal in each hand.

In the left hand, Naruto made 6 handseals, and 12 in the other hand. "**Ninpou: Binding Web no jutsu!**" A web of chakra sprung forth, small but fast enough to catch Kise's hands, temporarily locking them together. Jumping at Kise, Naruto landed a roundhouse kick to the boy's chest, but was again deceived by a clone he'd switched with. Feeling a kick to the stomach, Naruto was thrown toward the spikes. Making quick handseals, Naruto used the **Kawarimi no jutsu** to switch places with Kise, resulting in the boy's right arm being speared on the wall. Naruto brought a kunai to the boy's neck, keeping him from moving, before chopping the back of the boy's neck.

"Nice try." The blonde commented, before looking to his teammates, who had knocked out the stone genin with relative ease, Lee breaking his opponent's bones in his legs, rendering him immobile, and Tenten spearing the other genin to the wall, only catching spikes in the gut, and two kunai, one in each shoulder.

Naruto signaled for them to move on to a place where the passage would widen so they could make camp, and threw up a flare, which ANBU responded to and took the stone ninjas to the hospital.

(later)

The next day, only 6 hours of rest later, would be grueling. About 30 hours to go until the end of the test.

"Hey Rookie, what do we do for food?" Tenten asked, her stomach grumbling. "YOSH! WE MUST FILL OUR STOMACHS TO MAINTAIN POWERFUL FLAMES OF YOUTH!" Lee shouted to the heavens, still not learning the value of being stealthy in possible hostile situations. Naruto sighed, but just shook his head. "I don't know"

And for once, Tenten took the lead. "Well, I know how to get some food then, since our leader cannot seem to help with any magic solutions. Easy, we just find Chouji!"

"Easy?" Naruto asked, before pointing at all the walls. "Sure, he may have food. How're we supposed to find the guy?"

"Well… we head in the direction of the loudest noises, all we need to do is wa-" **BOOM!**

Tenten's comment was cut off by a loud explosion and the cracking of the wall to their left. Jumping backwards, they just missed a gigantic ball of fat, about 12 feet tall, rolling through the wall, then turning and going back the way it came. A nearby yell of pain emanated from beyond the wall, likely meaning someone had just been hit by the large ball, or the ball itself were damaged.

"Alright Chouji!" A voice said from beyond their view. Peering around the corner they say Ino shouting and cheering on Chouji, while she, Sasuke, and Sakura sat on the sidelines. Shikamaru had caught two members of the Grass team in his shadow, while Shino drained them and Chouji finished them off by bowling them over. Kabuto's team excluding him lay dead on the ground. The third and final grass team member was missing as well.

"What happened?" Tenten exclaimed, getting the rookies' attention.

"Some freak attacked Sasuke and bit him on the neck, leaving a weird mark. Then he kidnapped Kabuto and killed his teammates. The grass ninjas we just fought were the weird freak's teammates." Sakura supplied, not noticing she'd just helped Naruto of all people, despite her hatred for him.

"Great… well, anyone here know which way to go?"

"Depends, you got a scroll dobe?" Sasuke asked bored, but underlined with danger

"Not yet." Naruto replied, neutral to the insult.

"YOSH! But we shall find a jounin soon! They can't hide from my FLAMES OF YOUTH FOREVER!"

"…"

"Right, anyway! We will get going. You should rest." Naruto said, before he led his team off in another direction.

Once moving, they stayed at a steady clip, and used a compass they'd looted off the stone team to navigate better, steadily making their way to the middle of the clearing. When it looked like they were only a couple hundred feet away, they were intercepted at last, by a jounin. He didn't look familiar in anyway, he just seemed pretty standard. He wore his long brown hair in a ponytail down the back, and wore the standard jounin vest over his bare chest. He also wore black pants which had two short sheathes worn over his hips.

"Well well, what have we here. A ninja that can't use chakra, a weapons user, and an unfortunate little demon." He said, drawing his two daggers. They were a bit awkward in nature, the handles being about 4 inches, the blades about 6 inches long and serrated on one side so as to rip the flesh off his foes.

"If you beat me, I will give you a scroll needed to pass. If you cannot, I will incapacitate you, and leave you here for the ANBU" He read off a note card, then stored it in his pants again. "Well, that only counts for humans" he remarked.

Starting handseals, he completed them in an instant and called out "**Fuuton: Razing Wind no Jutsu!**"

A gust of wind headed towards the group of genin, ripping spikes off the wall and dirt out of the ground, flinging it at them. Tenten and Lee dodged out of the way, and Naruto jumped high in the air so as to not knock into them.

"BIG MISTAKE DEMON!" The Jounin shouted, throwing a dagger at Naruto. With no place to move, he saw the weapon coming closer.

Naruto's vision began to blur, as it combined the current scene with his one from only about a year ago, with a gigantic shuriken of electrical death spun toward him, and took away his ability to be the ninja he'd dreamed of becoming.

'_I won't let it happen again. I won't. This is what I've been training for, my best technique. It will work.. it has to_'

Tenten looked up at the scene and saw she was too late to intercept the dagger, screaming "ROOKIE!" at the same time Lee shouted "NARUTO!" And then they were both in awe, as they saw the dagger change course, ever so slightly, and miss Naruto.

"What happened?" The jounin said, unable to believe he'd missed. "No way I missed!" He complained like a fresh genin.

"What happened? My technique: **Ninpou: Chakra Thread no jutsu!**"

(Naruto's POV)

'_I did it! I launched the string, and I could control it. All it seems to require is a changing flow of physical and spiritual energy. If I keep the flow changing, and attach the head of the string to the tail of the string, like a disc, then the chakra will feed itself and remain.. at least for a couple seconds. With this… that move, and heck.. even most weapons may never hit me! Well.. if I can aim the strings well enough'_

(Normal POV)

Naruto landed on the ground, and looked up, fury and determination in his eyes. He disliked being called a demon, deeply disliked it, and now, with this new technique, he would silence this man.

"Stay out of this one guys… he's mine" Naruto told his team. They saw his eyes, and knew they would just get in the way. '_best to leave this to the rookie I suppose. Not as if the jounin can kill him anyway… demon and all… and right now, we'd just get in the way_'

"Yours? You have no idea what you're getting yourself into!" The jounin shouted, making handseals. "**Katon: Grand Fireball no Jutsu**" The jounin shouted, filling the passageway with fire. Thinking quickly, Naruto raised his arms, and swooped them in an array of crosses, leading chakra around him. Watching the fire move closer, Naruto forced more chakra to his arms and sped the threads along, faster and faster, until the fire finally met the shield, and followed the path of least resistance, straight around Naruto.

"Is that it?" Naruto asked, though he was becoming noticeably tired from usage of his limbs, in using the chakra threads over and over.

"Stupid little demon. You're already in over your head" And with that he flashed forward, and put his remaining dagger to Naruto's neck before he could even dodge. Pushing the blade to Naruto's throat, he was surprised to find a bundle of short thread of chakra holding the knife just millimeters away from Naruto's skin.

"And one of my newest moves…" Naruto paused "**NINPOU: BODY PLUNDER NO JUTSU**!"

Replicating the effects of his 'mind crush' jutsu from two months ago, Naruto reached a hand back past human limits with a sickening crunch, but bearing the pain he pushed his now ethereal hand into the jounin's body, then let it become physical again, and crushed the jounin's left lung, before pulling it out of the man's body.

It was only then that Naruto realized it was a clone holding him. The clone fell to the ground and melted into it, leaving Naruto's left arm hanging uselessly at his side. Suddenly, the jounin appeared before him, and swung. Naruto brought up a kunai of his own to block, but was a good deal weaker than the older, more experienced shinobi, his guard soon breaking.

Jumping backwards, Naruto did a few 1-handed seals, and said "**Suiton: Water Pellets no jutsu**". Spitting spheres of water from his mouth, each only about the size of a golfball, Naruto aimed them at the jounin's face to distract him.

The jounin dodged the spheres of water easily, and started doing some handseals of his own. "**Raiton: Magnetic Hand no jutsu**".

Turning around, Naruto noticed the man's dagger flying back to him and dodged just in time. The fatal error being that he turned around. The moment he did, the jounin charged forward and left a slash across Naruto's back, causing him to fly forward.

"I'm not done! **Kage Bunshin no jutsu!**" Several clones appeared around the small clearing made by the fighting so far, the clearing about 40 feet in diameter. Throwing kunai with exploding tags attached to the clones, Naruto crouched at the back of his army of 8, and sent the 7 clones ahead to throw the tagged kunai.

The jounin, seeing them coming, blew out a "**Fuuton Daitoppa no jutsu**" and blew them away, destroying them immediately, as well as the kunai.

Flashing to the side, Naruto came up to the jounin adjacent to his guard position, and swiped out with a chakra string. "**Ninpou: Whip Blade no jutsu**"

The invisible whip of spinning chakra shot out and cut the jounin across his arm and chest, leaving two inch deep gashes. On the rebound, Naruto slashed at him again, but he wasn't there. The jounin was now behind him, his dagger lodged in Naruto's right shoulder blade.

"I'm done playing now Demon. Die!"

Naruto awaited the final blow, unable to do anything about it at this range. The jounin just had to drag it across his body, severing his spinal cord, and he would be dead.

Bu the blow never came. Naruto opened his eyes a moment later and saw the jounin being carried away by two ANBU, the scroll he'd had being left behind. A third ANBU with a bird mask was walking towards him.

Tenten's scream of "NARUTO-KUN" Was the last thing he heard, before accepting the sweet, sweet embrace of darkness.

(end chapter)

Well, another chapter up. I would like to take this time to tell you that I will try to update every week, but as with this coming week I have a lot due, so I don't know if I'll make it. Regardless, I hope you liked it, and please review. Remember, if you have ideas for low level techniques, D or E ranked, feel free to post them as reviews. They will be taken into consideration, and I will credit you if I decide to use it. Review!!!


	5. Recovery

Kawarimi no Naruto

Sorry all! I know this took forever! I hit a writer's block, but I'm already started on the next chapter. I hope you continue to read and review, and I'll try to be better about posts. Remember, keep posting those jutsu. I'll credit you in the fic if I see one worth using / is appropriate. Read & Review!

Disclaimer: I do not own naruto nor any of its contents. If I did blah blah blah joke blah.

Chapter 5: Recovery.

'_Where am I?_' Naruto thought, awaking with a start. The first thing he took note of was the white ceiling above him, the bed, and then the odd weight resting on his right thigh and lower torso.

Looking across his bed, the blonde took note of Tenten, in a chair next to him, sleeping on top of him with her head dangerously close to a certain region. Look around, he noticed one other person in the room, a shinobi who looked to be a chuunin on the other side of the room. Motioning to the man silently, Naruto signed to him 'Hey. Wanna help me with something?'

The chuunin, seeing the mischievous grin on the blonde's face, only grinned and motioned for the boy to continue. 'Great. Don't resist my chakra, I'm gonna switch us.'

A short handseal later, and Naruto was across the room in the man's bed, the chuunin being where Naruto had been with Tenten resting on him in the same place. Well, at least for a moment.

Tenten snuggled into the man's thigh, as it was warmer than Naruto's had been. Moving forward in her chair a little, the weapons' master found a new weapon for her collection, one that made the chuunin very, very nervous. Rubbing the now 6 inch long 'handle', she mumbled in her sleep "do you like that N-?" before stirring slightly.

Taking the stirring as a time to get the fuck out of the room as quickly as possible, the chuunin signed the words 'Well, time to get away from the health fascists!' before using shunshin to exit the room to a branch outside. Waving to the blond, he quickly hid his 'little friend' down his pant leg and jumped away, leaving a chuckling Naruto and a now awake Tenten, wondering whether she'd fallen asleep at the wrong place or if she'd simply moved in her sleep.

"What happened?" She muttered groggily.

"I'll tell you when you're older, pervert."

"If you don't tell me-"

"INJURED! INJURED! REMEMBER?!" Naruto began screaming, in an attempt to ward off the advancing kunoichi.

'_I'll find out what it was about later._ _Ah, that's right… well, I would feel bad for him but he seems fine now. At least he didn't see me all mopey. Guess I may as well tell him the good news.'_ Tenten thought, walking up to Naruto's bed and taking a seat.

"Well, I may as well tell you the good news. We made it, and due to that Jounin's bungling we were given a free pass to the end. Apparently when he took off the seal that was limiting him to fighting at chuunin level, it alerted the ANBU. I don't know when he removed it, but regardless we got through. You've been out cold for three days if you're wondering, so you've got about 28 until the tournament. The only teams that passed were ours, Shino's, the Kumo team, and the Sand team."

"Ah… that hadn't even crossed my mind yet" Was the response, shaking his head to clear his thoughts. "When can I leave?"

"The medics said you could leave when you woke up. The final matches are single elimination, so Lee and I figured we'd meet up once a week until the tournament just to test progress, and until then do our own thing. That's basically all I've got for you Rookie, so I'll catch you later." She said, then disappeared with a shunshin.

About to enter his thoughts, he suddenly caught himself and shouted out to no one in particular "HEY! WHERE'D YOU LEARN SHUNSHIN?!"

(Later)

The day Naruto got out of the hospital he took off, letting his still sore muscles rest and allowing himself only a few stretches and a short jog before reading some, then relaxing a bit, and going to bed. The next day though, the young blonde got down to business.

Working through his taijutsu katas, it got to midday before he was able to start working on jutsus. '_My taijutsu is good. Nowhere near Lee's, but I need to get some more techniques down, and I think it's finally time to try my new one.'_ He thought. '_Genjutsu. I may not be able to project enough chakra into someone else's system to create a genjutsu from a range, but if I can get a steady flow for just a second, I should be able to get the technique off. All I need to do is visualize, make the seals, store the technique, and actualize it._' He thought happily. Then realizing just how complicated that would actually be, he decided to get some 'special' help with that.

'_Who would know about good genjutsus… there is that jounin they call the genjutsu mistress, but she's more known for combat genjutsu, ones from a range and ones for cloaking. No, what I need is someone who deals with people in close quarters, who can bring a steady flow to their enemies' brains… T&I DEPARTMENT!_'

If he could make it happen, a light bulb would have just appeared over the blonde's head. Sprinting for the Hokage's Office, Naruto dodged the secretary by walking up the side of the building, and jumping through the open window and into the room. Fortunately, it was only the Hokage in there, and the ANBU hadn't mistaken him for an enemy.

"Ojji-san" Naruto said, happy but more serious than the old man was used to. "Can you help me with something?"

"Sure, what is it Naruto?" '_Thank Kami! A distraction from this damned paperwork_'

"Can you someone from T&I to help me? Preferably someone who is good at using genjutsus."

'_That's an interesting development.. what could have happened that would make such a young boy interested in torture? Exposure to Anko?_' "I suppose, but why? What's this interest with torture all of the sudden?"

"Ah, not so much torture. I just want someone who can help me with touch-based genjutsus."

"Touch-based? Naruto, why would you ever want to do that.. those are only ever useful if you can get your target stationary. They won't help you at all in the exams." '_that, and the ones that exist are all for purely torture purposes. I'm not sure I want him to even learn those things_'

"Ojji-san, I need them! With my control, if I learn how to do it I bet I won't even need a second. Just.. please? I want to learn" Naruto begged, internally knowing that his puppy dog eyes and pleading would eventually convince the old man.

"Fine. However, I don't want you working with some amateur who will botch this. Take this" He said, scribbling out a note and handing it over "and be in your apartment at 9 AM tomorrow. An ANBU will pick you up, and take you to I&T. Hand that note to the guard and ask for Ibiki. You'll only get an hour, and that's all I'll help you with on this one. Just, do me a favor. Don't make anything too gruesome." The old man conceded, then motioned for Naruto to leave. It seemed like the boy had caught the man on a rather mediocre day.

"Thanks Ojji-san!" the blond said before leaving the man he saw as a grandfather to his work. '_Maybe someday I'll find a way to help with that paperwork, stop it once and for all.'_

"That went well" Naruto said to no one in particular, as he left the room. "Guess I'll just go train"

(Next Day: At I&T HQ)

"Well, Naruto was it?" The scarred man said.

Naruto only nodded, the subconscious killing intent let out by the man slightly intimidating. "Y-yes sir"

"And you are here to learn touch-based genjutsu?" The man questioned again. Apparently there was no getting him out of that interrogation routine of his.

"Yes sir" Naruto said a bit more firmly this time.

"Good. I will teach you for one hour. Now.. the first thing you need to know is that all touch-based genjutsu in Konoha are Morino clan techniques. In fact, we invented this concept, though I'm sure you could figure it out in time. I'll show you the basics, as long as you swear to never use them against loyal Konoha nin, or any Morino clan member, regardless of loyalty. I won't show you any of our techniques, but enough to get by. Do you agree?"

Naruto only nodded.

"Good, then let's begin."

With that, the odd pair walked into an empty room and set to work. The methods were very complicated, but Naruto had a notebook he wrote down key points in as Ibiki explained them, boiling down to simply three main issues. The first being 'Make contact with a tenketsu or tenketsus'. Then 'Send chakra directly to the brain from here, control it as necessary to make the illusion.' And lastly, 'To dispel requires another person to pulse their chakra into the target.'

In total, it was far more complicated than that, but by the end of the hour Naruto got the gist of it. All he had to figure out was how to see Tenketsu. The Morinos were not a famous clan, but even they had a minor doujutsu. They were able to see all the tenketsu, one of the several abilities of the byakugan. This gave them their ability to use these touch based genjutsus. '_All I need to do now, is figure out how to get to the tenketsus of my enemies_' he thought, silently creating a plan. '_This will take research_'

(At the Library)

"Ah, excuse me…" Naruto asked the menacing-looking librarian. "Can you tell me where I can read up on anatomy?"

The woman was silent for a few moments, seeing an ANBU, then decided not to try her luck. "Go to the medical section, third floor in the back." 'Demon' she finished in her head.

"Thank you" the blonde said, turning up the stairs without a backward glance. The less time spent around the scary looking librarian the better.

Reaching the stacks of medical books, Naruto quickly found them to be most helpful in everything except locating the tenketsu by oneself in any practical situation. However, this was not news to the young blonde. In his many quests to the library, searching for information and advanced education, he found that a lot of the subjects were written by the experts in their field. Likewise, the subject of tenketsu was mostly written by the Hyuuga, as they were the most familiar with them. To keep some secrets of their clan though, the art of locating them even without the Byakugan was secret and not available in any books to any non-Hyuuga. Thus, it seemed Naruto would have to find a new perspective.

The day passed quickly, as did the week as the subject of genjutsu was tossed aside in favor of some new jutsus. All the elements used, and a version of the Kage bunshin using shuriken was what he'd had to show for a week's worth of work. Hoping for some inspiration, at the end of the week he trudged out to the training grounds where his team met.

And he wouldn't be disappointed.

There on the training ground was Lee doing some kind of weird move which made his body glow with what looked to be chakra, that sadly he be wouldn't be able to use except to enhance his body. However, Lee fell to the ground soon after creating the chakra, it fading away as several spots on his body began to bleed in the shape of miniature puncture wounds.

"We need to get him to the hospital!" Tenten shouted from behind a post, where Naruto finally noticed her. "Right." Nodding, Naruto picked Lee up and rushed him to the hospital, Tenten in the lead so as to warn the hospital of the nin's arrival.

(At the hospital)

"Lee, you overdid it again!" Tenten was shouting at him through the haze of his slowly falling unconscious while the medics worked on him. "You need to be more careful, you even made your tenketsu bleed!"

'Tenketsu?' Naruto thought silently. "You burst 16 points on your body, Lee-san" A medic spoke up. "We are looking for others now. Run the diagnostic." Another medic replied. A green chakra enveloped Lee's body, before the medic said there were no others damaged too badly. The green-spandex clad boy would need to rest for about a week, but he would be fit by that time for sure.

It was half an hour later, with Tenten ending her berating of her now unconscious teammate, that the medics were about ready to leave. Hooking Lee up to an intravenous drip, the medics told Tenten and Naruto to not wake him, let him wake up on his own.

However, Naruto was looking at Lee not with sadness but with curiosity. The boy had burst his tenketsu by overloading them with chakra. If Naruto could achieve the opposite, overloading an area with chakra to find the tenketsu, he could use them to channel chakra to his opponent's brain. However, the idea of overloading someone else's tenketsu seemed rather unlikely, given his condition.

Another idea struck the blond. The medic had used some kind of diagnostic jutsu to find the tenketsu. Assuming he had the control to use such a technique, which he likely did given his condition, Naruto could perform the technique in one hand, and use the other to cast the genjutsu. Or better yet, he could make the technique uniform, so that it found the tenketsu then cast a genjutsu afterwards.

Pondering these thoughts, Naruto decided the best place to start was with the medic-nin that had been there earlier. All he needed to do was wait awhile.

After a few hours, Tenten decided to leave, and the nurse finally returned. Seeing her run the same diagnostic over again. Naruto remembered the seals and as much of the formation of chakra as he could make out, before asking the nurse directly.

"Excuse me?"

"yes?" The nurse said in a sing-song voice, not looking over.

"Could you help me? I need to learn that diagnostic jutsu." Naruto said, surprised at the friendly tone.

"Sure, why n-" The nurse stopped mid-sentence when she turned to look at Naruto. Seeing the friendly face of the demon of her nightmares, she turned back to Lee and proceeded to ignored Naruto, for the sake of not having to actually teach him anything.

Seeing that he'd be getting no more answers from her, Naruto turned away and decided the genjutsu would just have to wait until he could find a better way to execute them. In the mean time, it looked like it was time for more jutsus, and he had a whole month, 28 days, to get them done.


	6. Full of Hermity Goodness

Kawarimi no Naruto

Well, here's the next update. Yes, yes, I know I didn't put Sasuke in the finals, please stop bugging me about it. Not all stories will follow the manga, especially not my stories. Credit to xXsArcaneXx for the amplifier idea, thank you very much. Please read and review, and remember to keep sending me jutsu, I promise if it's good I'll get around to using it. After all, this fic is gonna be pretty darn long. I'm sure it'll fit in somewhere =)

Chapter 6: Full of Hermit-y Goodness

Standing in the hot springs, Naruto balanced himself on the water while trying to figure out how he could replicate a touch genjutsu. He'd considered giving up on the concept until a ninja could show him a healing technique, until he figured out that unless someone who didn't know of the attack became a medic-nin, he'd be waiting for way too long to get this technique down. Also, Genjutsu had endless uses. Who would ever expect one in melee combat?

However, Naruto had also realized that this new style would require him to be in contact with his enemy for at least a short moment at any given time. '_My old style is based around sharp, fast strikes with Ember Edges no Jutsu. However, I suppose I'll need to learn some grappling techniques to mix in when I want to use genjutsu. It may make it a little predictable, but only after the first time. And if I do it right, there won't be a second match_.'

Since balancing on water had become almost a subconscious feat, he was free to roam his thoughts… until he heard a giggling. Looking over to the wall he saw a man crouched against the wall with a long mane of white hair.

Now, Naruto was by no means naïve. He knew what the man was doing, it was just a matter of finding out why and how to stop this morally reproachable act.

"HEY PERV!" Naruto shouted, expecting an embarrassed reaction. Instead, the man turned and gave him the evil eye, before returning to his peeping.

"**HEY PERVERT!**" Naruto shouted even louder, pleased to hear the sound of girls leaving on the other side of the fence separating the men's and women's sides.

"Brat…" Naruto heard the man mutter. "You should be nicer to strangers, after all, who knows who they could be?"

Naruto looked over the man more carefully, and noticed a few key things. '_1. He's old. 2. He's got a long white mane of hair. 3. He's got red marks on his face. 4. Scroll on his back_'

"Hey Ero-Jiraiya" Naruto said nonchalantly.

The man was instantly up in arms, stalking toward Naruto, before suddenly doing 5 hand seals so fast they were blurs and slamming his palm into the ground. A toad twice the size of the sage himself appeared.

Dancing atop the toad's crown, he gave himself a large lead-up that looked oddly familiar to what Naruto had once seen Taronogii Akuma do not more than a month ago, ending with "The Grand Toad Sage Jiraiya!"

'_So far as I can tell, just a pervert. Though, if he's a sannin he may have something worth teaching me. Maybe the diagnostic jutsu or something.'_

"If you're so great can you help me with something?" Naruto asked, attempting to be polite.

Jiraiya held his amused face but said quite confidently "nope"

"Why not?" the blonde replied "You are a sannin, isn't it your job to also help out fellow Konoha ninjas?"

"Of course, but only on a battlefield. You're just a brat who ruined my research. Though, I'll give you a deal. If you can bring me a girl with" The sannin made various motions with his hands showing an hourglass figure, large breasts, and long legs "And a pretty face, I'll teach you something."

"'kay. Oiroke no Jutsu!" The now taller blonde said, completely nude and striking a sexy pose, the smoke around her privates fading rather quickly.

Jaw dropping, Jiraiya took out a sketch pad and bad the basic figure down in seconds, as well as a few notes. "You got it kid!" Jiraiya shouted while scribbling furiously.

"Now will you teach me?" Naruto said, reverting to normal. '_Now I have to change my jutsu, if he's the author of what I think he is, my disguise will just remind people of that awful series._'

"Sure thing kid, just don't take too much of my time. Let's go someplace more private though. Don't want every brat thinking I'm out to teach their sorry butts." Was the quick response. '_So this is Minato's kid. Pretty bright, pretty skilled. Maybe he wants to learn summoning'_

(In the woods just outside Konoha)

"Okay kid, I know what you want to learn. You saw my scroll, how would you like to be the next toad summoner of Konoha?"

"Sorry, what?" Naruto replied with a dumb look. '_Would he really give away the scroll that easily? Secrets of Konoha my ass. I could be a spy for all he knows._'

"Well, here kid. You're how old, 12? Well, it was as this time that a friend of mine thought you should know something important. I got the Hokage's letter not all that long ago and I've come to deliver the news. You're gonna want to sit down for this."

'_A message from the Hokage? A sannin with a message for me. Well.. I guess if he'd really been peeping he would've had a cloaking jutsu or something. Probably wanted me to see him._'

"Namikaze Naruto, you are the son of our 4th Hokage, Namikaze Minato. He is also the one who sealed the Kyuubi inside your stomach, something I'm told you are already aware of."

Naruto took about 5 minutes to process this, before looking back at the sage. "Why was I not informed of this earlier? And why does the village not know?"

"You weren't informed of this until now because Minato sent me a letter, given that I was his old sensei, and told me he wanted me to give you the news when you reached Genin rank. I learned this from the Hokage a little while ago, but was delayed in coming here by.. certain things."

"You were peeping weren't you?"

"Maybe. But that's not important. The villagers do not know of this for your safety, nor does the ninja world. Sarutobi and I expect you not to tell anyone about this given the possible outbreak of news, and the kind of political fallout it could cause. Wouldn't want your existence to cause another war with Iwa would you?"

Naruto shook his hands in front of his face in a defensive manner, shaking his head back and forth. "Nope, definitely not."

"Good. Now, do you have any questions?"

"Yeah, could you… tell me about him?"

"Later. I'll take you out for ramen later. If you're anything like him, you love it too. Now, onto training. So do you want to learn how to summon toads?"

Naruto gave the man a confused look again, and said with a quizzical tone of voice "How do you not know this? Accident? Electric Shuriken? Can't use chakra for more than E-rank techniques or things that split chakra?"

Jiraiya looked at Naruto for a minute, then remembered the description of the incident sent to him in the latter from several months ago. "Oh that!" He said with sudden realization. Promptly followed by him bursting out laughing.

"HEY! It's not funny!" Naruto exclaimed.

Gradually calming down, Jiraiya wiped a tear from his eye and looked at Naruto. "Heh, so I guess you can't summon then. At least, I don't know of anyway for you to do so. I can teach you some low level techniques you should know."

"Like what?"

"Chakra sensing for one. It's a technique required to become a hunter-nin. I heard part of the chuunin exam involved your team to look for various things in a mile area around one point, right? How did you go about doing that?"

"Kage Bunshin, mirrors… prior knowledge." Naruto said, suddenly catching onto why that test was for chuunin level ninja. It was ridiculously easy for ANBU to know of their surroundings in seconds… there had to be a way they did that."

"I see you've caught on. Well, if you're even half as smart as your father, you should get this pretty quickly. I'm gonna place some chakra markers in the woods around you with some Kage Bunshin. All you need to do is find them without moving from this spot and without using actual techniques. Got it?"

"Hai, Jiraiya-sensei" Naruto said, sitting down in the lotus position to figure out this new technique. Closing his eyes and waiting fro further instruction, he heard a giggling. Opening them again, he turned to see Jiraiya crouching in a bush looking out into the waterfall behind them. He'd already made the clones and sent them out.

'_Looks like he either doesn't know any cloaking techniques… or he's just plain stupid.'_ "Hey! Aren't you going to teach me the technique?"

"Oh! Right. Concentrate your chakra and pulse it out in tiny waves from your body. If the pulse returns, then there's something there. With time, you'll be able to recognize specific things like bushes, clones, people, animals, and more. That's what you're training to do right now."

Focusing again, fingers in the ram seal, Naruto sent out a pulse. However, he could find no clones. Trying a dozen more times or so, he found it quite easy to tell animals apart from plants, rocks, the ground, and various other things, even Jiraiya and the girls nearby. However, he could still find no clones.

"Jiraiya-sensei, I can't find them." Naruto said. "Though I can already tell things apart."

'_Its only been half an hour.. well, the letter did say he has phenomeal control. Though from the sounds of it, the chakra waves just isn't reach far enough. The clones are a mile out each, perhaps I can have them move a tad closer?_'

Relaying a message to his clones to move in a quarter of a mile, he told Naruto to "Just try again"

Half an hour later he got the same complaint, and repeated the process. However, this time Naruto was able to call Jiraiya over and point out where all the clones were with precision, including height and a few obstacles blocking clear view, if they could see that far. Practicing for a few more hours, Naruto found he could max out his chakra usage and could reach up to a mile radius, but he would have to concentrate for several moments. For practical use, he could only sense half a mile. Jiraiya himself could sense up to 10 miles, but half a mile would at least warn Naruto of incoming attacks or ambushes.

"Well, now what?" Naruto asked Jiraiya, who was writing in his sketchbook his research from earlier that day. The girls had long since gone home.

"Now, my young Namikaze, to dinner. After all, I need to tell you some things about my previous student, if you're to take his old job. Right?"

"Good to hear" responded the blond jovially. '_New friend_' he thought to himself, before falling in behind Jiraiya and heading for town.

(Ichiraku's)

"So what do you want to know?" Jiraiya asked, while watching the boy slurp down noodles.

Seamlessly eating and talking, Naruto replied "Well, what was he like?"

"Hmm. Well, your father was very abnormal, eccentric if you will. He loved this village with all his heart and soul, and was generous as well. However, he was strict with his troops and how he managed this village. A lot of the limits on the council were put in place by your father, you know. Sarutobi has gotten rid of some of them in recent years, but the most important ones are still there. He made it so the council had no right to even advise on ninja affairs, a controversial but useful ruling in times. Still, that was just his political life."

At this Naruto nodded his head, agreeing with the decision. After all, what would civilians and retired ninjas know of current ninja affairs? '_It should be up to the Hokage the strength of the village._'

After finishing his bowl, Jiraiya continued. "At home and in free time he was a fun-loving guy. He played guitar, quite well actually. Used to sing songs to your mother while she was pregnant with you."

"My mother? Who was my mother?" Naruto asked, confused.

"God, didn't Sarutobi tell you anything? Sheesh. Your mother was Uzumaki Kushina, a jounin from Whirlpool. However, the village was destroyed soon after she left. Any remnants of that part of your family are probably long gone."

"Oh. So… other than being a happy guy, but serious on politics.. what was he all about?" Naruto asked through a mouthful of noodles. The ever increasing stack of bowls was beginning to worry Jiraiya, who after getting over some shock continued speaking.

"Well, he was all about his family. He was driven on becoming the best ninja to walk the elemental countries, just so he could keep you, your mother, and the village safe. However, if you want to be truly specific… his passion was fuuinjutsu."

"Fuuinjutsu? You mean like.. seals?"

"Exactly what I mean, Naruto. In fact, it was your father's wish that if you are interested, I teach you about seals. Most specifically, the rudimentary stuff all good shinobi should know, and also about your seal. However, we'll have to continue this tomorrow. It seems you are finished and I would like some shut-eye as well. Meet me at the training ground tomorrow at 2 PM. Don't be late. Oh, and by the way, if you show up in that gow awful orange 'training suit', I won't train you."

Jiraiya laid a few bills on the table and took off. Naruto thought it kind of him to pay, until he looked at the slips of paper again. They were quite poorly forged bills that even had Jiraiya's picture on it, a chibi version. Cursing the man, Naruto's wallet emptied itself somewhat, leaving a relieved and joyous Teuchi to count his newfound money.

(Next Day)

The young blonde got up early that day. Between his escapade last night after dinner, namely stealing scrolls from the library on seals, and his need for new clothing due to a certain picky Sannin, it would be a wonder if he made it to training on time.

Quickly showering and pulling on his training suit, Naruto set out for new, more 'acceptable' clothing. Although he'd come to like the training suit, Naruto agreed it wouldn't do for stealth.

Walking along the market area, Naruto spotted a clothing store primarily for ninja, and walked inside.

He promptly walked out in the same clothing, a long string of expletives and shouts to "Get the Fuck out" following his unyielding gait.

'_Right.. People don't like me. Perhaps I should try a different approach.'_ Making the ram seal, Naruto performed a quick Henge which left him the same size, but change his facial appearance. With black hair, brown eyes, and no whisker marks Naruto walked back into the store he'd just come out of.

The man at the desk with a walking stick at his side was quick to help the customer who was showing several large bills. Internally, Naruto was laughing at the civilian. '_Large bills, heh. Look at him get all excited, all I did was Henge Jiraiya's money from last night. If I play this right, he won't notice when they turn back. Serves the bastard right.'_

"What can I get you sir?" The man asked. He looked typical, brown hair, brown eyes, and a crippled leg being supported by the stick. However, he moved as though it'd been that way for a long time.

"I need something less.. appalling and noticeable" said the young blonde. '_I actually like it though. Not so appalling…_'

"Ah yes, well.. These look like your sizes. Pick whatever you want from over there" The shopkeeper pointed to the far end of the store "And feel free to try it on" he finished, pointing to the curtained off areas near the register.

Sorting through the clothing, Naruto's thoughts turned to seals again. '_Supposedly there are even seals one can put on their body or their clothing which can boost one's power, or allow them to unseal items. If I ever want to do that, I can't cover everything… soooo… these should do_'

Pulling out a black sweater, Naruto figured it'd be warm enough, and if he cut the sleeves off at the elbow, he'd be able to use any seals he'd want on his forearms. With black jeans, he could also cut them off at the knee and achieve the same result. Gray fingerless gloves accompanied this outfit, as well as gray ninja-type sandals, shortened to cut off just above the ankle.

Putting them on, they fit perfectly, so Naruto decided to just buy them, and let the shopkeeper 'keep the change'.

'_I'll adjust them later.' _Naruto thought putting the items in his pack. '_I'll also pick up a couple more pairs of this tomorrow, make sure I have enough'_

And with that, Naruto set off, in hoped of making it to the training ground on time.

Fortunately, Naruto arrived at the training ground at exactly 2 PM, seeing Jiraiya already awaiting him. Or, more obviously, spying on the girls playing around the waterfall, one of whom had decided to forego a bathing suit that day. The streams of blood falling from Jiraiya's chin would attest to the apparent attractiveness of the young women.

Clearing his throat loudly, Naruto attempted to get the pervert's attention. Seeing who it was, he quickly turned back to his 'research', ignoring the blonde. Angry at the lack of focus, Naruto figured he had two choices. '_I could scare them away, which would work but he'd be angry at me, or I could use Oiroke no jutsu and get his attention, and hope the women leave in time.. or he focuses long enough to teach me_'

Deciding on the former, Naruto shouted "HEY ERO-SENNIN!" At the top of his lungs, scaring the crap out of both Jiraiya and the women, who proceeded to run away.

"You, you BRAT!" Jiraiya said, turning to the young blonde.

Intending to diffuse the situation, Naruto quickly shouted "Oiroke no jutsu" and turned into a beautiful girl. The Sannin promptly fell unconscious from blood loss.

(15 minutes and some smelling salts later)

"Okay Naruto, I guess what we should do first is check out your seal. I understand that with the incident, your chakra coils were messed up. All I really need to check now is if it affected the seal in anyway. Lift up your shirt, and channel chakra."

Doing as instructed, Naruto spent the next 10 minutes shifting uncomfortably, until the sannin looked up from his work. However, his face looked grim.

"Naruto, I didn't think it would be this bad. Your seal, though fine, does show some reaction to the attack. You will never be able to channel Kyuubi's chakra, as it seems the damage has cut it off from your system. I was originally intending on training you to use it, but because of the damage to your system, it'll just never be able to channel that kind of power. Also, the seal was originally supposed to have you absorb the Kyuubi and destroy its spirit by the time you turned 18. However.. due to your inability to use that much chakra, it seems the process will take longer. How much, I don't know, though I'll bet you carry the Kyuubi into your 40's. I'm sorry, but that's just how it is."

Naruto's face was grim as well. "I see.. Well, I've only ever talked to him once, and that was after the incident. He hasn't tried to reach me since then, so I assume he didn't notice anything. I guess I'll just have to bear this burden a little while longer."

Jiraiya decided the grim atmosphere was becoming a little too oppressive, and started to change the subject. "Now, seals. On with the basics. Every seal master has a different approach to the subject, since it has so many different ways to approach it. With me, you will be learning the 'Jiraiya school of sealing'. And the first lesson is: What is a seal? A seal is, in its most basic form, 'a means to convert'. A storage seal converts an object energy, stored by chakra in a seal. When you release it from the seal, it reforms."

"Well.. what about an explosive seal then?" Naruto asked, still somewhat confused.

"Brat, thought you were smarter than this. Think about it for a second, seals are made by your chakra mixed with ink. So what is being converted?"

"My chakra… into…. Fire and an explosive release. It's like a delayed fire technique!" exclaimed the blonde, now thoroughly excited. '_If I can have all the time I want in putting together the technique, given the seals must be made before combat, I can now use bigger jutsus. This seals thing… is interesting.'_

"Teach me." Naruto spoke, clear and simple.

"Just like your father" Jiraiya said smugly, a wide grin on his face.

(Later that week)

Naruto was in his room, mulling over some scrolls he'd gotten from Jiraiya. He'd learned of combining elements into seals, how to make them release at once or over time, and how to activate and deactivate seals, as well as some other basic skills. Jiraiya's requirements for him to prove he'd passed each step was to design a seal of his own to show to Jiraiya. For all three requirements Naruto designed an 'air conditioner' seal which mixed fire with wind to create hot or cold air, depending on the mixture. It also released over time, and could be activated or deactivated with chakra and a swipe of the hand.

However, even with this accomplishment, and a now comfortably cool apartment, Naruto was under-whelmed by his progress. '_There's so much more potential here, but how do I get to the good stuff? When will he start teaching me something useful_' Naruto wondered silently, before trying to design more seals. Tomorrow was the day he would practice with Tenten and Lee, he only hoped that by then he'd have something worth showing them.

(Next Day)

"Well, it's finally finished" Naruto said with a yawn. He'd gone to bed late and gotten up early, working until noon. With half an hour left until he had to be at the training grounds to meet Lee and Tenten, the seal he'd been working on was finally complete.

Unfortunately, his apartment was now full of vrious scrolls that all had to go, as they could be consideed a fire hazard. '_Hey.. that's not actually that bad an idea'_

"**Infant's Flame no jutsu**" Naruto said, blowing out a small plume of flame which he sustained with chakra from his hands. Systematically burning the paper, Naruto used one of his new seals, which he dubbed 'The Water Bucket Seal' to put out the last of the flames. Then, with a small wind elemental jutsu, he blew the ashes out the open door to the balcony, and off his apartment to the streets below.

"Now if I just keep my windows open to air out the place I'll be fine."

With that, the blonde thirteen year old picked up his various scrolls into which he sealed his weaponry, and set out for the training field… On his way getting lost in his thoughts.

'_That was actually pretty smart of me. Putting these seals on the sides of my jeans where my holsters would be and sealing the appropriate item, I'll never run out of ammunition. I mean, with my whole arsenal attached to my clothing, and then a resistance seal to make my clothing fire-proof. Ero-sennin will be impressed.'_

Still lost in thought, Naruto arrived in the center of the field, only to be kicked in the side of the head by Lee, and sent skidding across the ground several feet.

"Ow, DAMMIT!" Naruto shouted as he hit the ground. Lee was by his side in an instant, apologizing for hitting his 'eternal rival' but Tenten broke him away before anything else happened.

"I guess I am a little late, huh?" the blonde said, standing up looking good as new except for the small bump on the side of his head… It would be gone in a few minutes anyway.

"No, we were just early. So what've you been working on, Rookie?" Tenten asked with curiosity. The lack of holsters had not escaped her notice.

"I've discovered a new source of jutsus!" exclaimed Naruto "Fuuinjutsu!"

"Eh?" Was the eloquent response of his two teamates.

"Watch!" and with that Naruto called out his technique, unrolling his comically large scroll on his back.

When landing on the ground, it unrolled most of the way to show a circular seal 10 feet in diameter, which upon activation burned through the paper and imprinted itself on the ground.

"That's it Rookie? Paper attack?" Tenten said, somewhat disappointed.

(Elsewhere)

"AAAACHOO!" Konan suddenly sneezed, the force of her sneeze basically creating confetti.

"Neat trick" Pain said with his usual stony expression

A grumbling Konan was his only reply.

(And We're Back)

"No, just watch this. **INFANT'S FIRE NO JUTSU**" Naruto shouted, the small plume of flame rising before him, and into the seal.

In an instant, the flame began to expand, and no more than 10 seconds later, a fireball the size of the Hokgae tower had formed above the seal.

"UNDO IT! UNDO IT! UNDO IT!" Tenten was shrieking. Lee was prepared to run for cover, and Naruto was surprised it'd done that much. However, all their worries were extinguished when a giant ball of water turned the fireball into steam, a toad in the distance having appeared, fired the ball of water, and disappeared.

Some stray water falling to soak all of them was the least of their concerns however, when Jiraiya came out of nowhere and bopped Naruto on the head, sending him to the ground.

Instantly recognizing the man, Lee bowed low, and Tenten followed suit.

"Baka! Where do you get off experimenting with potentially dangerous seals when I'm not around? I gave you that scroll of chakra amplifiers with the expectation that you would do something small with it, but here you go creating a monster seal… Though I am happy you managed to make it function it seems you forgot to even store it properly. Look, it's not even on the ground anymore."

"Ah Shit! That took hours!" Naruto grumbled. "Well.. that's what I worked on. Seals… what'd you guys do?"

"Nice try brat" Jiraiya said, before grabbing Naruto and disappearing.

Eventually Tenten and Lee recovered from their shock, and resolved they'd have to ask Naruto about it next week. It didn't seem like he'd be coming back anytime soon.

(In the Woods)

"What were you thinking?! I told you the problems with seal experimentation. I told you if you were to create any new ones, you could only do so from known, stable designs, but here you went off creating an amplifier. And even worse, you did it wrong! It stuck around for one use then disappeared, it didn't give the chakra a direction, it just expanded it. That jutsu, had it gone off, would've done basically nothing. Heck, if I'd let it continue to expand, it would've become just smoke."

"I'm sorry" Naruto managed to get out. '_I disappointed him and I failed. What would dad think of me… he was a prodigy at this_'

Seeing the distraught look, Jiraiya changed moods a little bit. "Oh fine, it wasn't great.. but hey, your father made the same mistake his first time too. It just means you need more work. Let's get started… You have two hours with me. After that.. well.. I have some research to do"

"All Right!"

'_Just three more weeks to the exam, I've got to work harder_.'


	7. Creepy?

Kawarimi no Naruto

Hey all! I haven't updated or even really looked at this story for a while… I actually had to go and re-read the story to remember what my plot was.. heh.. But I am now updating it, and plan to update at least once a month until it is done. Call it a 'Writer's Resolution' if you will. Anyway, here's the next chapter of KnN. Remember to review!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor any of its contents. If I did, physics would matter.

Chapter 7: Creepy?

'_Amplifiers, amplifiers, amplifiers… why does Ero-sennin insist I learn all of this?_' Naruto thought to himself, looking through scattered papers for one of his previous attempts. So far the young blonde had discovered much about seals simply from trying to create a successful amplifier. Pulling out a week-old sheet of paper, he examined it for the seal he was looking for;

The weakest type of seal is one created with one's hands. However, being the quickest method this is the type used for standard jutsu.

Ninjas originally used seals written in ink to perform jutsus. Though this was more time-consuming, it often allowed the ninja better control over the technique. Also, given that the seal was in a state of permanence, it could be used multiple times and with varying amounts of power. 

The most powerful type of seal is the blood seal. Since the body's veins and chakra network run in parallel, one's blood and hair are already strongly linked. Any seal drawn with blood is single use only, and takes a long time to complete. However, because the chakra is somewhat guided, this method of drawing a seal can afford to be less exact. A seal created with blood is several times more powerful than a basic hand-seal type jutsu.

'_This isn't helping_' Naruto noted as he finished the paragraphs he must have written or re-discovered more than 40 times that week. '_What am I missing here?_' Discovering another paragraph, the blond placed it next to the drawing for the amplifier he'd experimented with two weeks ago with Lee and Tenten. By now he'd seen the major flaws, such as the lack of any limiters, the weakness of the outer edges of the seals which could result in explosion, and the lack of any control or direction. In essence, the seal was no more an amplifier than a mere converter.

With a sigh, the young blonde removed his eyes from the pages' endless words, and turned off the light on his desk. It was already nearly midnight, and it was time for bed. Tomorrow he would resume his physical exercises and taijutsu practice, then go meet his team again. '_It's about time_'.

(The Next Day)

It was a normal day for Tenten. She'd gotten up, showered, dried and dressed, and packed the various pointy objects into places around her person. Then, she stepped outside, walked down the street three blocks, and entered the apartment complex in which lived a middle-aged man named Ebisu who had served as her private tutor for the past three weeks. She agreed with Lee that since Naruto wasn't showing up for weekly training, they shouldn't bother and should just train through the day. Though, on the inside she was hurt.

'_I suggested we meet on the weekends for a reason you know!_' she fumed internally as she climbed the stairs to Ebisu's apartment. '_Geez, just when I was starting to let myself LIKE him, he goes off with the king of all perverts to train without us. What kind of team are we?_'

She hadn't noticed she'd already entered Ebisu's apartment without knocking, and was startled to see him standing there in nothing but a towel around his waist, and the shades that he apparently never took off.

"Ah! Tenten, you're a little early. I see you are a bit distracted, you can't even notice a basic Henge" Ebisu stated, releasing the jutsu prematurely to show he was in fact, fully clothed. Though, the blush on Tenten's face didn't escape his notice. '_I am an elite jounin after all'_ He narrated to himself.

"Oh, I was just thinking about some things." Tenten replied absentmindedly. "Well, let's start?"

Ebisu nodded at the suggestion, and they both performed a shunshin, appearing in Ebisu's living room. Plopping down onto cushions, they sat themselves before a round polished wooden table. Pulling out a scroll, the jounin laid it out on the table in front of both of them.

Tenten was awed at the scroll. She had been training with Ebisu on her weapons and techniques for three weeks now, and all he'd shown her were tricks that he said were necessary for her to truly master weapons. However, they didn't seem like much.

-_Flashback!-_

_(Training field 2)_

_This, my dear Tenten-chan is a field of nothing. Simply grass, perfectly flat terrain with no obstacles. What I am going to teach you is how to make your attacks invisible. Not by cloaking them, no. By making them impossible to predict. The first technique you must learn is the finger flick._

Tenten remembered that one was probably the easiest she had to learn. All it involved was flicking a kunai at a target rather than throwing it. She could do it reasonably well. Other techniques she had to learn included the chakra shuffle, where she had to hold on to a kunai thrown at her and release it with chakra instead of holding it, and the foot-throw where she basically threw the weapon with her foot.

However, the most grueling trick she'd had to learn was the momentum shuffle. Basically, she had to be able to use any part of her body to be able to grab and release the weapon. She accomplished this by channeling chakra to her thigh or stomach. Pinpointing the chakra on the specific location would come with practice and better control.

What lay before Tenten now was why she had been learning all those tricks. It was a map of one of the most famous Jounin training fields, The Web. She'd been getting preparation for something big.

"This, Tenten, is one of the Jounin training fields, a famous one known as 'The Web'. The Shodai Hokage used this field himself, and created the various overhanging branches you see." Ebisu said. The place was actually quite simple, it was 90 trees surrounding a clearing. However, every tree had a branch connecting to another tree across from it. The result was a maze of branches weaving around each other trying to get to the other side of the clearing. With varying thicknesses and densities, this maze was the crown jewel of agility training.

"Now, what you're going to be doing is standing on top of the branches, in the very middle. Each and every tree will be exactly 100 feet from you. You will have no weapons, I will use clones to throw the weapons at you, and you will have to direct them from yourself to all 90 trees without using your wrists. With the finger flick, momentum control, and other tricks you may know such as chakra strings, I'm sure you've figured it out by now.

So let me ask, from all this training, what do you think you're supposed to do?" Ebisu said, grinning at the expression on her face.

"I'm supposed to keep moving, every part of my body to redirect the attacks…. Right?" She responded nervously.

Ebisu nodded, and Tenten swallowed. It would be a long last stretch to the finish line.

(With Lee)

Lee was standing with Gai who had spent the past three weeks training him in alternate adaptations to the Iron Fist style, hoping for Lee to catch on and create his own style. Today was the exhibition day, where Lee would have to debut three signatures moves of the style.

Standing at attention, Lee waited for the signal, a strong looking practice log before the green-clad youngster. Then, Gai nodded and Lee was in the air, his weights releasing themselves on ninja wire binding the weights to his legs. With a flip, Lee brought the 'flails' down upon the log, utterly pulverizing it. "Konoha Anvil!"

"Konoha Helix!" The boy yelled, as he turned sideways and did a split, and turned himself around to create two spinning flails, both parallel to the ground… one low, one high.

"Konoha Spike!" He yelled once more, pulling two wires near his thighs, causing the weights to retract and use them for a powerful downwards kick which created a crater in the ground nearly 10 feet in diameter.

"YOOOOSH!" The Mini-Gai screamed to the sky. "Are my powers of youth bright enough Gai-sensei?"

"They'll do for now. Now, let's get working on smoothing out those gate techniques."

(At the Training Field)

'_I guess I neglected them too much.'_ Naruto said, taking in the visage of the empty field. '_I've been here six hours and done all the jutsu and taijutsu work I think I can manage for one day. I guess I'll just have to see them at the tournament….'_

With a sigh, Naruto took off to his apartment, not noticing the figure in blue following him, its red eyes boring into his back.

Sorry guys and gals. I'm not sure if this is all of the chapter because my computer had a really bad crash not long ago and I lost some files & data. It recovered as best as it could, so I hope this will suffice. Next chapter is the tournament. Read and review, and send me jutsu! Luv ya!


	8. How Many Ninjas Would A Wood Chuck Chuck

Kawarimi no Naruto

Hey all. The last chapter was kinda short, so I figured I would write the next one right away. It's a doozy of a long one, hope you like it. Remember, if you have any ideas for low-rank jutsu or combos involving said jutsu, please feel free to post them in your reviews. I WILL credit you. Thanks, read & review.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor any of its contents. If I did Gai would sing at least once every single episode until the English version would be taken off the air. (His voice-actor SUCKS!)

Chapter 8: How Many Ninjas Would A Wood Chuck Chuck If A Woodchuck Could Chuck Ninjas?

"WHERE THE HELL IS HE?!" Tenten screamed in frustration just outside the doors of the Coliseum. She had been waiting for a good 10 minutes, and with the matches about to start she was preparing to go inside and just pray the little blonde bastard would arrive on time.

'_What could he be doing that is so important as to make him MISS the exams?!!!!'_

From inside, the sounds of the crowd clapping for the contestants could be heard, until it stopped and the booming voice of the Hokage managed to reach even her ears. He appeared to be explaining the arrangement of the matches, one on one and until one of the fighters is incapacitated or the referee steps in. 'S_tandard protocol at least_' were her thoughts as she walked through the door. With a fleeting glance backwards she decided he must not be coming.

(With Naruto)

"What do you want, Sasuke?" he asked, thoroughly annoyed with the Uchiha blocking his path.

"Your life."

"Feeling a little overly dramatic today are we?"

The Uchiha's eyebrow began to twitch, until he reigned in the rising anger. "I am superior to you, I would have made it to the finals i-"

"If not for your moronic fangirl teammates?"

The Uchiha nodded and slipped into a fighting stance.

"So why fight me then?"

"Because, you are a demon. If I can beat a demon, I can defeat my brother."

Naruto sighed at how common the knowledge of the demon inside him was, so that even this now-orphaned Uchiha knew.

"I am not the demon, nor can I use its power."

"Foxes have always been known for their trickery. I have watched you train, I know you are more than just a human."

"What have I done that's inhuman?"

"Your healing. I know you have no bloodline, the council has said that much. All it can be is all that chakra in your system, healing you… It is said a demon cannot be killed.. It seems you have just taken another form. So now I can show you one power that can kill a demon. SHARINGAN!"

The red eyes of the sharingan came into view, three tomeos spinning wildly. And just as quickly they were gone, the unconscious body of the Uchiha being carried on the back of a man bounding away.

Naruto quickly checked his watch and found he was already nearly 10 minutes late. Swearing, Naruto began to run after Sasuke. The Uchiha may not be his favorite, but standing idly by during a kidnapping did not sit well with the blond.

(Stadium)

"First Match!" Called the referee "Gaara vs. Akimichi Chouji"

Chouji stepped nervously up to face the mass murderer from Sand whilst the other genin filed up the stairs to the balcony reserved for them in the side of the stadium wall. When they were all accounted for in the waiting area, the match began.

"Multi-size Jutsu" The fat-ass called out, turning himself into a bowling ball the size of a house. With chains wrapped around himself, he rolled toward Gaara with incredible speed. However, he was stopped short by a wall of sand which placed itself between them.

The wall of sand began to grow and wrap itself around the Akimichi while he struggled valiantly. However, it didn't matter much as Gaara soon covered him in sand.

"That's ENOUGH" The referee yelled, "STOP!"

"Blood, mother wants his **Blood**" Gaara muttered, his voice on 'blood' becoming more demonic. A bone-crushing sound was heard throughout the stadium as two things happened at once. First, Gaara was hit to the ground by Genma, trying to stop the attack, and secondly Chouji's torso was covered in lacerations from the sand which had been constricting him, before it fell to the ground.

"I'm sorry" The 4th Kazekage said, retrieving the knocked-out Gaara. "I will have a word with him."

'_That was weird_' Were the referee's thoughts as he realized he hadn't noticed the Kage even come down from the Box. In the box the Hokage looked nervous, but remained stationary, as he let the matches continue.

"Winner: Gaara" The match had only last 10 seconds. "Next match: Jikazu vs Kankurou"

One of the Kumo nins and Kankurou stepped down to fight. Kankurou was dressed in his cat-suit, and while he did look weird he had nothing on the kid from Kumo.

Jikazu was born to an odd pair. His father was a very famous ninja called: Kakuzu. Supposedly the man was hundreds of years old, and had impregnated his mother while she had been working as a prostitute. Supporting a family by having sex wasn't working too well for them, and soon Jikazu's mother left him with no parting words. One day she was simply gone.

That was Jikazu's 8th birthday, and on that day he met his father. His father was phenomenal, utterly destroying several high-level ninjas and stalking towards him. '_I remember that day, the promise I made him_'

(_Flashback_)

"Jikazu Hyaku, are you?" The massive man asked, the corpses of jounin littered at his feet.

"Y-y-yes?" The scared 8 year old asked.

"I am Kakuzu"

"F-f-father?"

"I am not here for you now, nor will I be in the future. I am not your father, do not treat me like one. However, you are a descendant of mine, so I ask you make the same promise as all others of your kind."

"W-w-what i-is it?"

"Swear upon your life that you will bear my mark, wear it proudly and protect it from harm."

"And… I-If I don't w-want to?"

"Then I'll kill you where you stand"

Jikazu began shaking, before staring into his father's eyes, looking for confirmation. Just a spark. And it was there.

"I… I swear. But what is your mark?"

"This."

And with a swift motion, a thread of tender flesh from Kakuzu's body pierced the young boy's shoulder, before stitching itself together again. Scarred into the tissue, forever, was one upside-down heart.

(_End Flashback_)

Thus, Jikazu wore a sweatshirt with a hole in it at his shoulder, a crest of red around it. On his legs he wore black speedos, and rings right above his knees made of gold. He wore nothing else, no pouch or holsters. Nothing.

Thus, Kankurou, confronted by someone with weirder clothing than his own, burst out laughing.

"HEY! What's wrong with you?" Jikazu shouted "You got a problem?"

"Yeah. You look ridiculous"

"I wouldn't be saying that if I were you. You look like a fat ugly skunk with a case of acne so bad it should be YOU in those wrappings."

"Oh that is IT!"

"Begin!" Genma shouted, seeing the insults only getting crappier from there.

Jikazu sprinted forward and grabbed Kankuro's head, electrocuting it in seconds. It was far too fast to dodge, as it seemed there was no time elapsed. Kicking forward his knee, Jikazu charged his gold rings with electricity and hit 'Kankurou' in the crotch.

"Let's see you have kids now!"

"Let's see you!" Kankurou responded. The knives hidden inside the puppet in place of Kankurou shot out at phenomenal speeds. Jikazu dodged or blocked most of them, but one managed to hit a golden ring and crack it, so that it fell off.

"That was it? That was your surprise attack?" Jikazu asked, amused.

"I'll get you now" Replied Kankurou, shedding the wrappings.

Dancing around the field Jikazu battled with the puppet. However, every time he tried to get close to Kankurou, the puppet master would switch places with his puppet. So far as Jikazu could tell, there was a lag time between when the puppet master changed places with his puppet and re-attached his strings. Thus, Jikazu made his plan.

Charging headlong at Kankurou, he threw his hands out in front of him with lightning crackling audibly. Then, just as he was about to reach Kankurou, he flung his arms backwards and struck the puppet with a bolt of electricity, linking it to the nearby cracked golden ring.

Then, tackling the puppet master, Jikazu wasn't surprised to see the handsigns for Kawarimi. What Kankurou didn't know is that since Kawarimi is instantaneous, it wouldn't break the circuit. Thus, a now fried Kankurou lay on the ground, his puppet nearly ashes, and himself so fried his brain couldn't function anymore. Kankurou was legitimately dead.

Jikazu merely looked up at the Kage box, and bowed deeply to the Kazekage who had recently returned from putting Gaara back in the reserved box.

"Winner: Jikazu Hyaku. Next match: Rock Lee vs Temari"

The spectators would later comment a few things about this match. One, there was no way that kid in green could possibly be a genin. Two, I think that was faster than the Akimichi. And three "HOLY CRAP! HE JUST RAN STRAIGHT THROUGH A FUCKING WINDSTORM!"

As soon as the match begun, Temari opened her fan to show all three moons and threw wind blades at where Lee had been. However, the young taijutsu apprentice was already in motion, nearly upon her by the time her attack was released. Thus, it was no surprise when hundreds of pounds of metal with far too much force behind it crashed into her, sent her flying into the wall, and knocked her unconscious. She was immediately shipped to Konoha's emergency room.

"Winner: Rock Lee." Genma said, surprised by the 4 second round. "Next match: Aburame Shino against… This name has to be fake."

The crowd began murmuring at the oddity of that announcement. However, the Raikage who was in the box merely shouted down to the referee: "It's real, now announce the damned match"

"Right. Next match: Aburame Shino v. Lokran the Magnificent"

Shino stood across from yet another odd looking Kumo-nin. This one wore so much shiny stuff he was nearly a walking disco ball. Shino in his grey merely provided a sharp contrast.

'Lokran' was dressed in white tights with glitter covering him from head to toe. His hair was white with gold and silver streaks, and pointed up and in all directions. He also wore white goggles and glitter on his face, hands, and feet which were incidentally bare.

"You look stupid" Lokran commented, giving Shino a once over. Shino merely shook his head, and waited for the match to start.

"Begin!" Announced Genma, right on time again.

Shino allowed a cloud of bugs to form around him, before making them disperse into the air all around Lokran… who was shivering.

"What?" Shino was forced to ask.

"Bugs!" Lokran announced. "I hate bugs! Do you know what I do with bugs?"

"What?"

"I ZAP THEM!" Lokran screamed at the top of his lungs. Instantly, electricity began sprouting in lashes from his body, as he ran in circles through the cloud of bugs like a retard chasing a butterfly. However, the attack was effective.

Recalling his bugs to his body, Shino was annoyed to find that Lokran has wiped out nearly half of that wave just by running around waving his arms like an idiot. Figuring the guy to be a moron, Shino pulled out a kunai and threw it at Lokran.

Again Shino's attack was rendered ineffective. Shock and awe as the kunai didn't impact Lokran, it simply attached itself to the idiot like a magnet, before dropping to the ground.

Walking over to it, Shino bent down, picked it up and pocketed it again while Lokran continued to run in circles.

"Are we actually going to have a fight?" Shino asked in his usual monotone, though with a hint of exasperation.

Lokran appeared startled that his opponent said anything, but responded with an overly exuberant "YES!"

That was when Shino began fearing for his life, as Lokran, instead of running in circles with his unusual lightning armor type attack, Lokran was chasing him.

"HUG MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Lokran screamed as he chased Shino around the stadium. Much of the crowd experienced a serious case of 'sweatdrop' while Shino ran around in circles.

After about 20 minutes of this, Lokran finally ran out of chakra and Shino walked over to him and pushed him over.

"Winner: Aburame Shino" Genma stated, utterly embarrassed for Shino who just ran around in circles rather than fighting….

"Next Match: Tenten vs Shikamaru."

The two fighters came down to face each other, Shikamaru making it to the field only because he didn't want to anger his mother.

"Well, let's make this quick" Tenten commented. Shikamaru nodded, and at Genma's "Begin" They leapt apart.

Tenten removed two kunai from her pouch, looped a wire through the holes in the back and flung them at Shikamaru.

Leaping sideways, he dodged them only throw two of his own. Watching their path, he was surprised to seen Tenten not dodge. Instead, she began to spin. The to kunai he'd sent at her were returned twice as quickly. In his surprise, he received two deep cuts.

'_I'll have to find a different way to move her_' were the genius' silent thoughts.

'_Perfect, right where I want him_'. "Oi, Shika, you ready to give up?"

"I'm not that easy to beat. Shadow possession Jutsu!"

The shadow stretched out towards Tenten, who attempted to dodge it but found herself already caught. The shadow from the wire began to waver before becoming bigger and thicker. Looking down, she saw two shadows that had attempted to capture her, the one along the wire and the normal one which she was not caught by.

"I see. Clever Shika, but did you predict this?"

Tenten's body instantly exploded in smoke to reveal a log. The wires dropped to the ground, and just as quickly Shikamaru turned around to dodge a swipe to the head from a kunai.

"Ninpo: Rising Dragons jutsu!"

Rising into the air, Tenten released the two scrolls she always carried with her and began to rain the pointy implements down upon the shadow shinobi, who apparently trained more than he let on.

"Shadow Sink jutsu". And just like that he sunk into his own shadow, escaping the mass of knives and other pointy things that had threatened to skewer him.

Landing easily on the ground, Tenten found herself surprised to see Shikamaru's shadow had moved to….. right underneath her.

'_Shit!_'. Jumping up, she attempted to escape but found her foot caught by the strangely intelligent shadow user. Her Achilles tendon was quickly cut, but she managed to escape any further injury. Breathing hard, Tenten finally decided: '_Time to show the fruits of my training_'

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" There was murmuring from the crowd as to a certain genin having a jounin level jutsu, and a proud look from Ebisu as he saw his little protégé start to use her real skills. This was as 5 copies of Tenten began to close on Shikamaru.

"Behold my specialized taijutsu: Dance of Knives"

Each copy of Tenten began to spin, their movements fluid as they ducked, weaved, and threw their bodies around in a gyrating fashion that planted one of their limbs on a weapon at any given time, using chakra to launch that weapon at Shikamaru.

Shikamaru once again sunk into the ground, but this time he didn't move. "Not a chance. Ninpo: Shadow Pierce Jutsu."

Five long black tendrils shot from his shadow, each one piercing a clone of tenten… or so he'd hoped. Each tendril was easily dodged no matter how hard they tried to hit them, and after 10 seconds of fighting in this way he was forced to cancel the technique. Thus was the battlefield. Littered with knives and Shikamaru staying in his shadow, thinking.

Time dragged on, until finally he emerged. The moment he did, all the clones headed towards him, beginning their movements again.

"Mass Shadow possession jutsu!" A whole sea of tendrils began emerging from Shikamaru, using the last of his chakra. He spread the sea out, catching all five clones without them being able to dodge, and Tenten who had been standing behind him, a kunai about to be put to his neck.

Raising his hand, Shikamaru shouted "I give up", a roaring stadium giving its approval to the fighters. However, Tenten was slightly disappointed. Her techniques relied on her having an opponent who used a weapon, not just shadows. '_Oh well.. my ability will become apparent later on.. particularly against that sand user."_

"I didn't have a way to win. Only to force a tie." Shikamaru explained. He would be promoted. "Winner: Tenten. Next match: Uzumaki Naruto vs Koorino Klaus"

Klaus stood in stark contrast to his fellow team mates from Kumogakure. Standing 6 feet tall, carrying a small metal club and wearing only a pair of black pants, he looked more like he belonged on a team from Stone. However, it was not to be.

"Naruto Uzumaki!" Genma called again. There was still no response.

"Last call: Naruto Uzumaki". Nothing happened.

"Naruto Uzumaki is disqualified" Was Genma's announcement. It was then that disaster struck. The Kage Box exploded, summons began appearing, and in all of this one, young, blonde boy was having a hard-ass time with a certain scarred-jounin.

(With Naruto, earlier.)

"Drop the Uchiha!" Naruto shouted after the gray-haired man.

"I'd be happy to." Was the reply, as the Uchiha was dropped to the ground. The man continued bounding away, and Naruto was awed with the ease that the captor had given away his prey. That is, until Naruto turned Sasuke's body over.

There, laying in and alleyway of Konoha, trash littering the ground lay a dead Uchiha. His eyes had been plucked out, his throat slit. It was only a matter of time until they would be found, so Naruto felt it better he not be at the scene. Stepping out of the alleyway, he was not surprised to see the captor long gone, likely with the Uchiha's eyes. However, the situation only got worse as several Konoha ANBU appeared on the scene. A few short moments later and Naruto was in custody, heading for Ibiki.

(With Ibiki)

"Now, Naruto. Why not explain how you ended up in an ally with a dead Uchiha? Remember, if you lie, I may…. Slip"

Naruto stood flat against the wall, stripped of everything but his underwear, his wrists, ankles, and torso strapped down securely. Ibiki stood in front of him, holding a syringe directly above a vein in Naruto's left arm.

"I was following a man"

"A man? Whom?" was the response, the syringe moving into his arm.

"A konoha ninja. He had gray hair and glasses, I think he was in the chuunin exam too. He was carrying the Uchiha away, having picked him up while he and I were in the middle of a conversation. H e was fast, way too fast. He stole the Uchiha's eyes and slit his throat, and by the time I'd figured that out and looked around he was already gone."

"I will have to verify what you said here. In the meantime, I'll let Anko beat you around a bit. I don't think you'll need your body in perfect condition for your stay here the next couple days."

Ibiki left the room, leaving a relieved but very scared Naruto behind him. This Anko person sounded familiar… and left a bad feeling in him. Also, the fact that Ibiki had been focusing all his killer intent on him the whole time had been a bit paralyzing in its own way.

(Walls of Konoha)

"So, Dyukai, whatcha doin' after work?" asked a suave chuunin on guard to his teammate. '_Yes!!! I had to bribe three people but I finally got watch duty with Dyukai-chan!_'

"Nothin' much. You?" She asked, not a care in the world.

"Well, I was thinking we could go get a drink later.. y'know, if you want to?"

"Are… are you asking me out?" Dyukai's head was nearly exploding at the possibility. "Ha HA HA HA HA!!!! That's so funny… Are you SERIOUS?!"

At that moment, the nameless chuunin wished he could just die. However, one must always be careful what they wish for, as a kunai buried itself into his skull.

"W-what?!" Dyukai looked around feverishly, and saw there, outside the walls a single ninja with a sand headband. He quickly disappeared, and she signaled for assistance. She didn't even know the guy's name, and now she was getting him transported to the morgue. The last noise he heard being her derisive laughter.

"I-I can't b-b-believe it… How could I be so cruel…. I wish I could just die!"

"Be careful what you wish for" said a voice from behind her. Then, the world went black as she collapsed upon the nameless chuunin who'd had a crush for her. Then, they were crushed together as a grand, three headed snake slithered its way through the walls.

A full legion of Suna ninjas followed in its wake, as well as a battalion or two of ninjas from Kumo. Along with that were various scouts with an odd musical note on their headbands. The invasion had only just begun. And yet, the two of the primary players were nowhere to be found, because on a operating table just inside of Sound's borders lay an evil, snake of a man currently having eyes implanted in his head, his faithful assistant doing the work.

(Stadium)

"This was well planned. I see your skill has no bounds, Orochimaru. To hide your presence from even me." The aged Hokage said.

"I don't know what you're talking about" replied the fourth Kazekage. The Raikage had already left the box to start slaughtering troops. Kakashi was sent to deal with him, as well as a squad of ANBU, Maito Gai, Asuma, and Kurenai. The Hokage only hoped they were enough.

"Ah, so it IS you Kazekage-san. What is the meaning of this?"

"Quite simple really. Watch."

With a flick of the Kage's wrist, Gaara's body came racing towards them on a gust of wind. The Kazekage only had to drive his hand into the boy's stomach for the old man to understand.

"He's a demon, isn't he?"

"Yes, and now he is loose in your city. All I can say is, mission success."

With that, the Kazekage used a shunshin to get away. The old Hokage could only watch as he left, before looking to the gigantic sand demon that had just appeared in the center of his stadium. "This.." Sarutobi muttered, "Is going to be difficult."

(With the Raikage)

"We've got you surrounded! Raikage, we are elite jounin of Konoha, do you really think you can handle us alone?" Asuma announced as he, Kakashi, Kurenai, and Gai surrounded him. The ANBU squad had left to tail the Kazekage.

"Ah, Konoha's elites. I think you have been up on your pedestal a bit too long now. And I happen to know all about you. Though, I can't give away all my secrets, or yours. So… time to deal with you…"

"He's right. Enough talk." Kakashi muttered. Gai was unusually silent and Kurenai was a bit scared, as she was not elite having only turned jounin a short while ago. Not even a whole year.

Kakashi dashed forward in tandem with Gai, the two of them keeping a good pace with the Raikage. However, given that the Raikage was such a large man, 6'2" and made of hard muscle, it was surprising that the man was laughing.

"Is this it? The limit of your speed? Then let me show you something I think you'd like to see. It's not quite as amazing as that of your precious Yondaime, but it may just rival it. Raiton: body thunder no jutsu"

In flash of light the Raikage was gone, then appeared just as quickly as thunder sounded above. Suddenly, with a lightning-charged punch to her gut, Kurenai was feeling a bit less confident about the situation than she did previously. Just as suddenly, she was unconscious on ground hundreds of yards away as her body cut a path through the forest.

"Well now, one down three to go." The Raikage commented casually. "And I'm just getting started"

With another bright flash of light he was gone, and with the sound of thunder he re-appeared next to Asuma, throwing a punch at his gut. Asuma dodged it, just barely and to the left, but was unprepared for the kick that followed. It smashed against his side as he used his weight to try to carry himself with the blow rather than against it. Still, he flew through the trees, travelling a few hundred yards before smashing into a rock, indenting it heavily, and falling unconscious.

"You cannot block me, dodge me, see me, or hear me. What do you intend to do now, Sharingan Kakashi?"

The voice echoed around the clearing, barely heard above the roars of thunder as the Raikage teleported all around them.

"I have no choice" Kakashi said as he revealed his sharingan, or tried. As he began to pull up his headband he was suddenly smashed in the side, his arm pulling up the headband no longer protecting it. Flying through the air, Kakashi revealed his eye and realized something off, but the numerous trees he hit and his shattered ribs silenced such thoughts. All he knew was he had to get away. He couldn't save them, he was too weak.

"And then it was one" The Raikage commented. He stood across from Gai who had a dark look on his face.

"I may not be able to defeat you, but you have hurt my comrades and friends, and for that you will NOT BE FORGIVEN. YOSH! BEHOLD MY POWERS OF YOUTH!"

"Kaimon!" Gai shouted, opening the first gate. Sprinting towards the Raikage, he suddenly found himself batted aside, as a second raikage appeared.

"Raiton: Bunshin" The Raikage said quietly, as several other clones formed around him. "Kill him."

Instantly, just as the Raikage had done, the clones moved at nearly the speed of light and bashed Gai around like a volleyball, eight boulder-crushing hits until the raikage himself charged up his fist with lightning chakra and struck the man with a hard uppercut right in the stomach sending hundreds of thousands of volts through him. Gai was unconscious when he hit the ground.

"Perfect, Raikage-dono" Came a slithery voice from the woods, carrying Kakashi's body over one shoulder and another body under the other. "This will do nicely. I trust Konoha will be destroyed?"

"Provided your summon and that demon is enough, yes. And my payment?"

"The Hyuuga is all yours." Orochimaru said as he laid down the body of Hyuuga Hanabi, who had been kidnapped and replaced by a body double only that morning.

"Excellent. Well, then I must be on my way. Do what you wish with the remains, my battalions will leave with me."

"Very well" The snake-man hissed, displeased that it meant fewer forces in the city, but knowing that Konoha was probably already doomed, thus the Raikage's men were unnecessary.

(With the Hokage)

Sarutobi was having a difficult time with the fully formed demon. With years of experience to aid him, he quickly figured out that conventional elemental techniques wouldn't work, and neither would genjutsu. Taijutsu was strictly out of the question against a demon of this size.

'_awwww bugger_' the old Hokage expressed in his mind as he saw the demon getting bored with him.

"Doton: Doryuudan no jutsu!" he shouted, riding atop a gigantic dragon made of earth until it careened into the demon, the impact blowing off an arm which quickly reformed, just in time to attack him. Dodging out off the way, he began to find this duel to be tedious, and with seemingly no resolution except….

Gaara. On the demon's head. Protected by layers and layers of sand. '_If I wake him up, it may stop the demon, but it will leave an unstable container in its wake. This is a threat I don't want to come back._'

Taking out a kunai, the old man used a shunshin to reach the head of the beast, and swung at the container's neck, only to have his strike blocked by a shield of sand… which wrapped around Gaara and sunk him down… deep inside of the demon.

'_Assumedly there's some sort of air pocket.. but now I'm on the head of a demon with no way to kill it_.'

"SEND FOR 10 ADDITIONAL ANBU TEAMS! FOR NOW, CONTAIN IT!" The old man shouted down. Maybe, for once in his life, he'd luck out.

More likely this would be a gigantic cluster-fuck.

(With Naruto)

Naruto was very happy to be out of prison, and was glad he hadn't had his forehead protector. Some random ninja from Sand had just come into the prison and released every single prisoner he could reach, under the condition they help destroy Konoha.

Naruto happily lied and agreed to help destroy it, the Suna ninja in too much of a rush to notice his rise in blood pressure or heart beating that is associated with a lie.

Naruto however was not happy with the state of affairs

He had not only missed the exams and his match, but the whole fucking village was being invaded by giant snakes, Suna ninja, Kumo ninja who seemed to have left recently, or at least dwindled in number, and just recently he'd passed over an area where the fourth Kazekage had been utterly destroying Konoha ninjas left and right. Naruto was not stupid, he knew he couldn't face a Kage… but it seemed there was no other choice….

I know! I hate cliffhangers too, but this is as far as I could get before class starts, so… blame my teachers if you must blame someone. Please read and review, and next chapter will be even more jutsu intensive, so send me jutsu. D or E rank, to be used against a Kage. This can also include seals, general ninpo, etc.


	9. Fallen Konoha

Kawarimi no Naruto

Hi all! Behold, another chapter of KnN. This one took me awhile, given that I've been working hard for finals the last week. Papers, papers, papers, and more papers…. My break? Writing KnN. So, hoping you all enjoy the chapter. Remember to post jutsus for me to use for Naruto, I've been getting very few suggestions lately… Read and review, and thanks for all the support. :D

Chapter 9: Fallen Konoha

"Hijutsu: Guardian of Sand" The Kazekage shouted as a behemoth made of sand nearly two stories tall burst from the ground. It's red eyes opened as two wings burst from its amorphous back, and two bent-backward legs sprung from the bottom. A tail grew from its behind, covered in spikes, whipping around menacingly.

"You gotta be kidding me…" muttered an ANBU near Naruto, who was hiding around the corner of a nearby building. A second ANBU joined him and used handsigns to send a signal. The first ANBU nodded, and the two jumped high above the ramen stand they were using as a shield. The Kazekage turned to them just in time to see a dragon made of water combine with a dragon made of electricity slam into his guardian creature. And he smirked.

"That's it? I expected better from Konoha's ANBU. Two A-rank jutsus, even combined won't make a scratch on this." The Kazekage stated, patting his sand dragon guardian gently. It puffed some air out its nose, then took flight.

Roaring, the mighty guardian blew a ball of air onto the ANBU, the concentration of the wind cutting a swath of destruction, annihilating anything in its path. The two ANBU jumped to opposite sides of the blast.

Naruto peered around the corner and saw their masks; Bird and Snake. Bird launched a second water dragon at the guardian, attempting to turn it into mud. However, the sand that fell merely reformed from the ground when the beast landed again, this time next to Naruto.

The tail whisked around violently, coming deadly close to Naruto's head before he put himself back around the corner.

"A genin? Now now, what would you be doing in the middle of this fight?" The kazekage's voice echoed around the courtyard he'd created, debris of the buildings that used to be there apparent. "It seems as though you wish to stop me. How cute." The robed man said. With a hand signal, the guardian again took flight, and this time when they dodged they found themselves struck in the temple with the blunt end of some kunai, knocking them unconscious before being cut in half by the guardian's mighty jaws.

'_I gotta stall and wait for help. Who can help though? Jeez.. where's Jiraiya when you need him?!'_ Naruto thought to himself. On the outside however he appeared calm. Walking out from the corner, Naruto said calmly. "If we must fight, I wish to know your name. It is customary after all to know the name of the man I must kill. Maybe then I can repent later."

"Ah, how humorous. There's a demon in your village, there's an invading force here of thousands.. and you, a single genin not only intend to stop me, a KAGE, but you intend to kill me? If I gave you a clear shot at my chest I bet you couldn't even scratch me. No, if you can manage to give ma a paper cut, I will tell you my name before I kill you."

"Then I suppose I have no choice" Naruto said confidently. However, on the inside he was panicking. '_This is a freaking KAGE! What am I supposed to do? How does this keep happening?!_'

With a handseal, The guardian jumped up into the sky, flapped its wings once and shot a ball of compressed air where Naruto was. Without even thinking, he used Kawarimi to replace himself with a piece of debris across the clearing. Then, concentrating his chakra, the blonde made a cloak of it around him, turning him invisible. However, this attempt at hiding was met with laughter.

"I can feel your chakra. You think that kind of academy technique would work on someone of my caliber?"

"Yes." Naruto replied, removing a kunai from his pouch and slowly filling it with chakra. After a few more seconds of the Kage's laughter, the kunai was literally humming with chakra. '_Time to strike_'

The kage sent his guardian off to go raze more of the village, just as Naruto shouted "Ninpou! Shadow Kunai no Jutsu!" Naruto shouted, throwing the kunai and making 49 copies of it at the still laughing man. Except, he wasn't laughing anymore. He was behind Naruto with a kunai held to the boy's neck.

"Now now, don't be so hasty" the Kage said nastily, before drawing the object in question across the boy's throat. However, he was just as quickly disappointed when he cut nothing but a log, as Naruto had done a kawarmi without handseals.

"Clever, but a master of that jutsu can do it in an instant." And again, the Kage was behind Naruto. Teleporting around the field with various replacements, Naruto soon realized he had nowhere to run, no place to escape unless he wanted to keep getting his neck almost slit for the next minute or so. Thus, Naruto was on the defensive. Leaping away and receiving a moderate cut on his left collarbone, the blond recovered his breath.

"That was almost 3% of my power. Ready to give up yet, brat?"

"I will not submit. So long as Konoha is in danger, it cannot be afforded. Prepare to die!" Naruto shouted the last part, but the man only chuckled.

"So young yet so brave. Too bad you're no match for me. Fuuton: Headhunter no jutsu"

A large discus made of wind appeared and shot towards Naruto at incredible speeds. Subconsciously, he used a kawarimi but still managed to get a small cut on his abdomen. Appearing across the clearing, he realized the danger was far from over when the discus changed direction and shot towards him again. The Kazekage smirked as Naruto reappeared over and over again around the clearing, attempting to escape the disc. Only 20 seconds later the Kazekage decided to see how the genin was doing, and dispelled the technique.

Naruto was coated in lacerations, ranging from paper cuts to the deep gashes across his back when the disc changed direction and hit him from behind. His body was rapidly repairing itself. However, the deep cuts would still impede him for the next few, vital minutes. His chakra capacity was still pretty full, probably on 10% used by the numerous replacements the past few minutes.

'_If not Jiraiya, then someone. Please someone, I don't want to die_' Naruto prayed. And his prayers were answered when two ANBU arrived…. And were promptly engaged by the guardian which reappeared over them.

"Shit" Naruto cursed under his breath. "Well, looks like all that training will come in handy for something after all…"

A stray fireball launched itself between Naruto and the Kage. Taking the opportunity for what it was, the blond through a kunai through the fire and replaced himself with it, landing directly in front of the much more powerful man.

With a slash of a recently drawn kunai, he managed to cut open the front of the Kage's robes, showing a little of the man's skin. "Ninpo: Cursed Skin no Jutsu" Naruto shouted, stretching ten chakra strings from his fingers and attaching them to the man's exposed hip. With a yank, Naruto removed several layers of skin, but failed to take the bone out of the man's body.

"Damn it!" The man shouted, clutching his bleeding hip. With a swift couple handsigns, his left hand began glowing green while his right hand glowed blue. With his superior chakra sensing ability, he noticed the chakra strings stretching out from the Kage's hand. Leaping away, Naruto escaped 20 feet away, but soon found this wasn't enough as the strings wrapped around his arms.

"Interesting trick you have there kid. Let's see, I can't rip yours arms off, but.. what'd ya call it… cursed skin? Let's see just how much skin I can take off!" The angered man shouted. His left hand was now strengthening the chakra strings, his hip had been healed in a mere moment.

'_Fuck! I need a distraction.._' "WAIT! You told me if I could cut you, you'd tell me your name!"

"Tch, brat. You caught me off guard is all, don't get so cocky. My name is Karura."

"Karura?"

(Elsewhere)

"Sandaime-sama, what should we do?" A random jounin shouted up to his Hokage. The old man was buried in his thoughts of how to stop the demon. It was currently contained by the wooden pillars of Yamato's demon-neutralizing technique, but the demon was too powerful to be restored so quickly to just the body of the man. It appeared the seal was far too unstable, and had broken, thus leaving the demon completely free. The small boy, Gaara, was still alive but unconscious atop the demon. He was only partially exposed on the head.

"I can't think of another way to seal the demon. Someone find Jiraiya and get him here as soon as possible. This takes precedence over those giant snakes, and he should be done with them by now anyway" The Hokage demanded. Several ANBU jumped away to fetch the white haired Sannin.

"Kami help us" The Hokage muttered as he stared up at the enormous sand demon before him, as it continued to struggle, trying to break free of Yamato's technique.

(Elsewhere)

The Raikage was the last to leave the village, his battalion having long since fled when they figured out they weren't needed anymore. A pleased smile rested on his face, his specially trained lightning battalions had killed more than three hundred genin, and more than 200 chuunins and jounins of Konoha. They had lost barely more than a dozen. '_Yes, harvesting that bloodline was an excellent idea indeed_' he thought, thinking back to the event just a few months prior.

(Flashback)

_Raikage Tower: 5:20 AM. "Raikage-sama, there's a guest here to see you. Shall I send him in?"_

_With a nod, the Raikage beckoned the man inside. The guest was one of his jounin who was walking in an unfamiliar way. His eyes opened, and they were yellow and slitted._

"_Ah, Orochimaru. To what do I owe the honor?"_

"_I have a deal for you. In a few months my village and the Sand will be attacking Konoha during the chuunin exams. I know you have some past… disagreements with that village and I believe you'd like to seem them truly suffer. I don't think I need to point out the advantages of such an opportunity."_

"_No, it seems you don't… In exchange for a Hyuuga delivered to me by you personally.. a main branch member, I will take part. Though.. I may have a good deal for you as well. I would like to introduce you to someone."_

_Orochimaru looks on interested as the Raikage sent out a messenger._

"_I am aware of your technique, and I think I may have the perfect.. body for you."_

"_Oh? Do tell." The Snake said, though internally he was surprised at the information leak. A civil conversation this may be, but underneath it was a challenge that said 'I have better intelligence than you. I know you. Thus… I am a danger to you.'_

"_It is a bloodline that occurs only once every three generations."_

"_Ah, the Raikanyugai? I believe it is an interesting bloodline yes, but compared to others in this nation, it may pale in comparison."_

"_You mean the Tezeraiton I believe?" The Raikage asked, now aware that Orochimaru knew, likely, all the bloodlines of the country._

"_Yes. Instant bodily transportation. When lightning strikes, finding yourself anywhere in the world. I believe your son has it, does he not?"_

"_You will not touch my son. Though.. Is it wise to assume you would appreciate the Raikanyugai?"_

_Just then the messenger returned, a genin in tow. "Raikage-sama, I have brought Lokran."_

"_Ah, very good. Lokran, allow me to introduce you to Orochimaru. He needs to perform a simple physical examination on you, so I ask that you go wait outside the room for a few minutes."_

"_Yes Raikage-sama" the boy said as he bowed and left. He felt a shiver run down his spine as the yellow-eyed man eyed him._

"_Dissect his bloodline and make the armor chakra supported. If you can recreate this ability, then I shall bring my elite corps to Konoha. They will slaughter at least 500 Konoha nin before we leave, and I will personally…"_

"_Destroy the Hokage Monument." Orochimaru finished._

_The Raikage's eyes widened, but as he mulled it over in his head it was entirely possible. "Agreed. Now, I believe you have some work to do."_

_And with that, Orochimaru walked out the door, and with Lokran the Magnificent in tow, he began to examine the boy's bodyi n a way that would scar the boy forever. After all, being dissected then put back together would do a lot to a boy._

_Two weeks later, Orochimaru delivered the shell of a previously happy boy, and the blueprints for electric armor which functions in the same way that Lokran's body worked. It would make all typical ranged weapons useless, it would shock any that touched it other than the user, and all it required was channeling chakra into the armor. It would become a staple for all jounin-and-above ranked ninja in Lightning Country, and for secrecy purposes, each would be registered to the blood and chakra of the jounin. The seal design was made by a traveling master named… Akuma._

(End flashback)

Now, carrying the body of Hyuuga Hanabi, he silently left the walls of Konoha. '_Ha, destroy the monument? Yeah right, even Kage's lie at times. I prefer a smaller role in this war…_' Traveling at top speed, he made it several miles away before he felt a chakra signature. Assuming it to be the rendezvous crew he'd set up beforehand, he headed for them and landed moments later.

"Maggots, let's go" He shouted, before realizing his situation. His rendezvous crew had just been slaughtered by multiple white-eyed opponents, all of them having just re-opened the chakra points to fake a signal to the Raikage.

The head of them all stared at the Raikage angrily, looking up from the nearly dead man before him. His rendezvous crew of 3 jounin had been killed, and now standing before the Raikage were the top five Hyuuga jounin, with the retired Hyuuga Hiashi leading them.

"Give back Hanabi or prepare to die" Hiashi said in full confidence. '_She's my daughter you bastard… you hurt her and I'll tear you limb from limb_'

(With Naruto)

"That's a girl's name! What are you doing ? Where's the Kazekage?"

"I am the Kazekage now. My husband died when he sealed that monster into the child inside me. You don't honestly believe he survived after my son figured out it was him responsible for his pain? No, no.. My son killed my husband in his sleep. I survived thanks to Chiyo reviving me, at the cost of her life. Then, this knowledge is all superfluous.. I was more powerful than my husband anyway. After all, I am of the guardian clan, the oldest and most powerful of Suna. And now, Uzumaki Naruto, container of the legendary nine-tailed fox, and get a second demon working for my nation."

'_I can't go with this woman. She may not know of my condition, but she knows of the fox and that in itself is dangerous. She's too strong for me though.. I must escape_' Naruto thought worriedly. Performing a quick kawarimi, Naruto attempted to escape across the courtyard and break into a run for the stadium. However, Karura appeared before him again in a cloud of smoke, and slammed her fist into Naruto's forehead, sending him to the ground rolling. Coming to a stop 50 meters away, his world was swirling, and his forehead protector was shattered by the force of the punch.

"H-how dare you. I.. that forehead protector was my most precious possession in the world.. you will pay for that…**with your life**" Naruto stated, as his voice took on a darker pitch. Kyuubi chakra began circling in his veins, but barely any could be emitted, creating a thin red shimmer around his body.

Launching himself forward, Naruto slammed his fist toward the kage but the woman only released more chakra strings and attached them to his body, before slamming him into the ground and throwing him backwards. Not one to give up, the blonde formed three lightning fast handseals, pulled out a scroll, and laid it flat on his palm before shouting: "**Katon: Hakka Teppodama**" (Credit: Flood125).

Instantly, a ball of wind was created, only about the size of a baseball, and shot towards the Kage. Just as it was about to hi, the Kage side-stepped but was unprepared for the spark within the air that burst forth into flames, destroying a ten foot area with the flames hot enough to leave the ground charred black.

Karura's robes were singed and burned through in places, leaving her no choice but to remove the garment, revealing the tight black pants underneath and the plated mesh armor on her upper torso, white and slightly see-through at her waist. On her back was a short sword which she had yet to draw. Her Kage-hat remained in place, hiding her forehead and much of her smooth brown hair from view.

For a woman of 31 she was rather attractive… though that mattered little given the circumstances.

"I liked those robes you know… and for a demonic transformation this is child's play. Why not show me your true potential, demon?" Karura taunted.

Naruto seethed, knowing his attack has worked but did barely anything anyway. Pulling another seal from his scroll pouch, he placed this one on his left palm. Then, channeling chakra to both his palms he shouted "**Fuuton/Suiton: Seeking Water no jutsu!**"(Credit: PontiusPervert74). The chakra channeled through the seals to create swirling balls of water, which Naruto tossed at the Kage.

Just as they were about to hit, the exploded outwards, creating a shower of water that did nothing but make her clothing a little wet. Internally, he was berating himself for trying to use the incomplete technique in battle.

"Brat.. did you just throw a water balloon at me?" the Kage asked, chuckling at the Genin vessel's attempt to harm her. "That was pathetic. I grow weary of your attempts." She said, appearing behind him in a fraction of a second and lowering the butt of her kunai towards his head.

(With Sandaime)

"Jiraiya! Where in the hell have you been, there's a freaking demon here" The Sandaime shouted, now transfusing chakra into Yamato so he could maintain his technique. "I'm going to have to seal the demon with that technique.. I need you to put the finishing touches on the seal."

"Why can't we just wake him up? It should make the demon return to the seal" Jiraiya stated, the serious of the situation overriding his innate joking personality.

"Because the seal doesn't need to be fixed! It's gone!" he shouted at his student. Jiraiya gasped in shock that someone managed to remove such a seal so easily, then remembered it wasn't the Yondaime who had done Gaara's seal.

"Who are you going to seal it in, sensei?" Jiraiya asked cautiously. Sarutobi just nodded to Gaara's unconscious form.

"You can't! This already happened once, and we'll have to give him back to Suna anyway. This could repeat itself."

"We have no newborns to seal it into. He has a tolerance for the demon, and this time there'll be a better seal. And.. we may not have to send him back. Danzo… will come in handy for once"

"Are you saying you'll trust Danzo to cover this up?" Jiraiya asked skeptically.

The sandaime nodded, then said "We have no other viable choices. I am ready."

"Very well.. Sensei. May Kami spare your soul from the death god…"

"Thank you, my student.. Tell Naruto I love him like my own grandson…" Sarutobi stated, as he began the necessary handseals. "Release the technique now!" he shouted, and the demon was set free, swinging one of its enormous arms at the old man.

Sarutobi merely dodged out of the way, using a seal-less shunshin to appear next to Gaara. With a sweep of his hand, the ritual was set up and the demon began shouting in agony.

Every second, the demon resisted, until the wizened old man dredged up his last bit of strength and dragged the soul out of the demon, sealing it into Gaara. A moment later, the old man was dead. The sand demon lost its shape and the sand fell to the ground, Gaara landing on top of it in the arms of the white haired Sannin.

Jiraiya quickly applied the seal to the sacrifice, and laid the bow down to sleep. A single tear escaped his left eye, before he composed himself and gathered the Konoha shinobi still around him. He ordered them to go aid in the defense of the village, then laid down… and cried.

It wasn't long before he realized he was still needed, and as the most powerful Konoha shinobi left, he was the acting Hokage. With some silent, motionless patience he gathered a tiny amount of nature chakra as he was taught. Then, he drew blood from the tips of each of his fingers, and slammed his palms to the ground with extreme force, shouting "Tajuu Kuchiyose no Jutsu".

Instantly, 8 small battle toads were summoned, each about the size of a one-story house, with armor plating and wielding various weapons. "Go help defend the village." Jiraiya stated. He'd used much of his chakra fighting off snakes and those battalions of Kumo ninja. '_Killed 11 of those bastards before they ran, but given the nature of that armor I don't think anyone else in this village would be able to do much… Is this village really falling on this day?_'

He was given no more time to ponder as a few jounin from Suna jumped down before him and engaged him in combat. '_It's gonna be a long day. I deserve some sex after this._'

(With Raikage)

"Hyuuga Hiashi, what a pleasant surprise. I was fairly annoyed when I realized it was your brother you sent our envoy, not yourself. As for your daughter.. well, your eldest has less potential, I may as well take your youngest. Are you here to stop me?"

"No, we're here to make a deal" Spoke up one of the jounins behind Hiashi. Hioashi looked perplexed, and was about to ask what they were talking about when he saw the strike coming from behind. He dodged it, but was attacked by two other Hyuuga.

While not in his prime, Hiashi was still a formidable opponent as he soon swung into a kaiten. The jounin jumped back, and the Raikage watched on in cautious amusement. In less than a minute, Hiashi was subdued by his superior clansmen who attacked just as he finished his spin.

With Hiashi on the ground unconscious, the eldest jounin Hyuuga stepped forward. "We are here to negotiate a deal."

"I'm listening.. for now."

"We offer the body of Hyuuga Hinata in exchange for Hanabi" the jounin said as he stepped forward.

"What's in it for me?" The Raikage stated.

"We'll let you leave without anymore hassle and guarantee you make it out of fire country."

"This sounds, suspicious. Why so willing to give away the heir?"

"Because, the elders say Hanabi will make a better heir. Hinata is worthless and in the way. As the other part of this deal, we request that you kill Hiashi, so that this deal does without witness."

"I'm not here to start any more of a war than I already have. Killing a clan head may just make me a bigger target than Suna will be after this." The Raikage said.

The Hyuuga jounin shook his head. "It will not, because we Hyuuga will not support a war against you. When the time comes, the Hyuuga council will recommend we rebuild Fire-country rather than seek revenge. In addition, with Suna's demon, the threat of Orochimaru, and the show your battalions have put on today, Kumo will likely be put as a threat not to be challenged. Your country will be safe from the Hyuugas."

"Very well then.. I accept your offer."

Stepping forward, the Raikage charged his body with lightning chakra and smashed his fist down onto Hiashi's head, blowing it apart. Then, he set down Hanabi's body. A Hyuuga council member emerged from the woods with the body of Hinata, and handed it over to the Raikage. He checked her eyes briefly then asked "Is there a seal?"

"No."

"Very well, I will take my leave then. Ah, and for future reference, deceit and power struggles are typically done in offices rather than on battlefields."

"It will be noted" The Hyuuga council member said, before turning away. The other 7 Hyuuga jounin followed him, and took Hanabi's body with them.

As the Raikage leapt away, he did a thorough body check with chakra and medical analyses to make sure he hadn't been tricked. He found nothing, he finally had the Hyuuga eyes, to be harvested or bred from the body of Hyuuga Hinata.

(With Naruto)

"I'm afraid I can't allow you to do that Miss." A voice said, as Karura's kunai was stopped. A hand was grabbing hers, and there stood Akuma in his brown tunic, black pants, and strange silver and black gloves.

"This would be a good time for you to leave the village" He suggested helpfully, a cheery smile plastered on his face.

"Oh really, and I suppose you're going to make me?" Karura asked with a smirk. "How amusing…"

"Ah, I have not properly introduced myself, have I? Well, Karura-san, I suggest you allow me before you make such rash decisions. After all, I may be someone you don't want to mess with."

Akuma's smile remained plastered on his face. Summoning a fire-breathing squirrel, the size of a horse, he stood atop it and shouted for all to hear: "I am a man feared wherever I go, I make women swoon at the sight of me, I am the squirrel summoner, master of fire, jutsu genius, I AM AKUMA TARANOGII"

Naruto sweat-dropped despite the kunai near his face, and Karura just burst out laughing.

"What the fuck kind of introduction was that?" She asked in her hysterics.

"It was my kind. Now, must we fight or can you leave peacefully?" Akuma asked, allowing some killing intent to slip into his voice and demeanor.

"I am scared of no ninja, especially not ninjas I can beat by kicking them in the balls." Karura stated confidently. She threw Naruto aside into a building, and stared forward at her new opponent. "Will you at least present a challenge?"

"If I must. Though, I don't really like fighting, so I will ask one last time… would you please leave?"

His answer was the guardian springing up from behind him and shooting a wind bullet at him. His squirrely mount flew into action, jumping high and allowing Akuma to punch it.

"Ninpou: Mind Mimic no Jutsu" Akuma shouted as he punched it. A wind bullet appeared and shot towards the guardian at point-blank range, destroying its head and dispelling it.

"Ah-ah, you may have defeated that guardian, but you did not win the battle" The Kazekage said, as she moved through handseals, while running forward.

"Fuuton: Air Slash no jutsu" (Credit: Krillin794) she said. Pulling her short sword from its sheath, he imbued it with the attack and swung, creating a blade of wind that flew at them at ridiculous speeds.

Akuma jumped from his summon and dispelled it just before it was struck. While in mid-air, Karura repeated the action. With nowhere to dodge, Akuma shouted out his jutsu "Ninpou: Ghost-form no jutsu"

The blade of wind cut straight through him, separating him as he fell. Karaua smirked but was confused when he faded out of existence, then returned to normal, completely intact and standing where his parts had landed. All that could be seen of the damage was a small gash on the front of the man's torso.

"Katon: Tajuu Karyuu Endan" Akuma shouted as multiple dragons made of fire shot from his palms and began circling around Karura, who had dodge their initial charge.

Her analytic mind soon figured out that the tails were connected to his palms still, thus allowing him to control their movements so easily. With a few short handseals she said not a word and placed her hands on the ground. '_Doton: Earth Chamber no Jutsu_'

The world circled around her and made a dome, protecting her from the dragons. Then, she made a few more handseals and performed : "Doton: Shinjuu Jashuu", the double decapitation technique. Appearing under Akuma, she took hold of his ankles and dragged him under… or tried to. He jumped, but lost control of the dragons which flew in all directions and exploded, destroying several more buildings and almost killing Naruto who had been watching in awe.

Appearing underneath him, she shot another blade of wind at him. '_I grow tired of this_' Akuma thought, deciding that he'd wasted enough chakra.

Dodging the air blade, he noticed she was tiring as well. However, he had seen her whole fight with the Konoha ANBU, the jounins and other enemies before that, and her fight with Naruto. Plus the guardian looked like it would consume a lot of chakra. Akuma guessed she had about 20% of her reserves left at most. '_If I can force her to use enough chakra, then offer for her to leave.. I may get out of this battle without killing again_.'

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Akuma shouted, allowing six clones to appear around him. They all charged and engaged Karura in a fierce taijutsu battle for a few moments, before every clone was destroyed.

"I take it taijutsu is not your strong point then?" Kaurar asked rhetorically. '_Even my students are better than that and they're only chuunin. This guy's what.. my level. He could be a Kage.. All I know is this is not looking too good for me unless I can get him into close combat_.'

Karura sprinted forward and swing her sword for his neck. Akuma, not used to her speed, received a cut on his shoulder as he dodged away. He continued to dodge and use a kunai to block, but after a few minutes it became apparent that Karura was winning.

As a last resort, mid-combat Akuma shouted "Katon: Soul's Ire no jutsu"

Flames swarmed from his hands as he suddenly tackled Karura, receiving a sword stabbing straight through his abdomen. However, his attack succeeded as tendrils of fire wrapped around Karura, burning her alive. Mixed with some spiritual chakra, several of the tendrils penetrated her body and burned her on the inside.

Karura screamed in agony for a few seconds until the technique cut out and Akuma fell to the ground, terribly wounded and dying from a pierced liver, several broken ribs, internal bleeding, and lacerations coating his body. A pool of blood was being formed beneath him.

Karura stood over his body with her sword and made to stab it again into his body, but found her sword replace with a piece of debris.

Naruto stood holding her sword in his hand while Karura looked at him with utter hatred apparent in her eyes. Naruto's glare equaled hers, before he threw the sword like a kunai straight at her. However, she managed to sidestep it and grab it, sheathing it again regardless of the burning pain in her flesh at every movement.

Naruto spoke up, saying "You should leave."

Karura gathered her Kage robes, singed as they were, and left. Right before she shunshined away she said "This isn't over, for either you Naruto. I will get that demon soon."

Naruto was left shaking with Akuma on the ground before him, dying. Picking up the man, he wrapped some bandages around him, and used kawarimi to transport him and Akuma slowly across the city to the hospital, too tired to physically run there.

(With Tenten)

'_That was the last one, they're all in full retreat now. All I need to know now is… where can I find Naruto?_'

And that's the chapter! I hope you liked it. It took four hours to write, and I honestly should have been writing a paper by now…. Or eaten… Regardless, I did it and it just kinda flowed to me. I hope you like it. I won't be posting for another month or so, so read and review, and send me some jutsu. In a chapter or two we'll be headed for the time skip!


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